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THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO

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Social Sciences & Humanities Library

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Date Due

MAR 1 6 19C7
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UCSD Lb.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. SAN DIEGO

3 1822 01957 4995

THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY

EDITED BY

T. E. PAGE, Litt.D., and W. H. D. ROUSE, Litt.D.

OVID

HEROIDES AND AMORES

OVID

HEROIDES AND AMORES

WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY

GRANT SHOWERMAN

PROFESSOR OF LATIN IN THE DNIVBBSITV 0] WISCONSIN

. ■ I

LONDON : WILLIAM HKINEMANN NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN CO.

MCMXIV

CONTENTS

PAGE THE HEROIDES 1

THE A MORES S13

INDEX 509

I THE HEROIDES

OVID'S LIFE

Publius Ovidius Naso was born at Sulmo, a city about ninety miles south-east of Rome, in the country of the Paeligni, on March 20, 43 B.C., the year of the second triumvirate, composed of Augustus, Antony, and Lepidus, and the year of the proscription and death of the Ciceros. His family had been of equestrian rank for several generations.

Ovid's education was begun at Sulmo, and com- pleted at Rome and Athens. In deference to his father's wishes, he pursued, with his brother, the rhetorical studies usual with the ambitious young men of the time, expecting to enter upon a public career ; but so fervent was his passion for literature, and so irresistible his instinct for literary art — he himself says that whatever he attempted to write took the form of verse — that he found it impossible to follow the profession of his father's preference. He held, indeed, one or two minor offices in the public service, but his chief interests were always among the social and literary circles of the capital. Among those with whom he was intimate were Tibullus, who died when Ovid was twenty-four, Propertius, and Aemilius Macer of Verona. Horace and Virgil were his seniors by twenty-two and twenty-seven years respectively ; he heard the former recite, and says he merely saw Virgil, and was probably well acquainted with neither.

OVID'S LIFE

At the age of nineteen, Ovid mourned the death of his only brother. The poet was three times married — twice with divorce as a hasty result, and the third time to a lady of one of the oldest and most respected families of Rome, the Fabii. The last union seems to have been based upon serious affection, or, at least, esteem, and remained un- broken to Ovid's death. A daughter, Perilla, is said to have been born of this marriage. In 8 a.d., the poet was suddenly banished by Augustus — with- out loss of property or citizenship, however — to Tomi, a distant town on the Black Sea, where he dragged out a miserable, though poetically pro- ductive, existence until his death in the year 18 at the age of sixty-one. The cause of his banishment is generally supposed to have had some connection with the scandalous conduct of the Emperor's granddaughter Julia.

Ovid's literary activities began at about his twentieth year, and extended over a period of nearly forty years. His works fall naturally into three groups : the amatory poems, consisting of the Amoves, the Heroides, De Medicaviine Faciei, Ars Amatoria, and Remedia Amoris, were the works of his youth ; in the following period appeared two poems, the Fasti and the Metamorphoses, which may be described as mythological ; and the final products of his pen, the Tristia and the Epistulae ex Panto, came from Tomi, and were in the nature of laments. All of these poems have been preserved. The Medea, a Gigantoinachy, a Panegyric of Augustus after his death, a Parody on Bad Authors, and a poem in the language of the Getae, may be mentioned among works which have been lost.

OVID'S LIFE

Though composed after the Amoves, the Heroides are placed first in this volume because the Amoves in their extant form were the result of a revision by the poet, who first published them in five books. The present tendency may be said to favour the assumption that the last six of the Heroides, in spite of suspicious irregularities in form and lan- guage, represent a reawakening of the poets interest in this field at a period later than the appearance of the first fifteen — possibly during or shortly after his composition of the Metamorphoses.

MANUSCRIPTS, EDITIONS, AND TEXTUAL CRITICISM OF THE HEROIDES

The principal manuscripts of the Heroides are the following : —

1. Codex Parisinus 8242, formerly called Puteanus,

of the eleventh century, corrected about the twelfth ; by universal consent the best manu- script. It contains the Heroides and the Amores, with omissions. Of the Heroides there is lacking: I; II, 1-13; IV, 48-103 ; V, 97-end; VI, 1-49; XV; XVI, 39-142; XX, 176-end.

2. Codex Guelferbytanus, of the twelfth century,

with a recension in the thirteenth ; of com- paratively little value. XVII-XX are almost illegible. The first hand gave to XX, 194.

3. Codex Etonensis, of the eleventh century, but

inferior to its eontemporarv, the Parisinus. It contains, with various other compositions, the Heroides up to VII, 157.

4. Schedae Vindobonenses, of the twelfth century,

containing fragments of X-XX, omitting XV, and often serving to confirm the Parisinus.

TEXTUAL CRITICISM OF THE HEROIDES

5. Codex Francofurtanus, of the thirteenth century,

the best authority for XV.

6. A mass of manuscripts of the thirteenth, four-

teenth, and fifteenth centuries, all of which have been subjected to extensive alterations.

7. The Greek translation of Maximus Planudes,

of the latter part of the thirteenth century, from a Latin manuscript resembling the Parisinus, and of considerable value in the parts omitted by it.

• Two Editiones Principes of Ovid appeared in 1471 — one at Rome and one at Bologna, with independent texts. A Venetian edition was published in 1491, with commentary by Vossius.

The principal edition of recent times is that of Arthur Palmer, Oxford, 1898. It contains the Greek translation of Planudes. The introduction and por- tions of the commentary are by Louis C. Purser, who assumed the task of completing the work at Palmer's request a short time before his death in 1897. The text in Postgate's Corpus Poetarum Latinorum, Vol. I, 1894, is also Palmer's.

Other editors and critics may be mentioned as follows: A. Heinsius, Amsterdam, 1661; Bentley, 1662-1742; Heinsius-Burmann, Amsterdam, 1727; Van Lennep, Amsterdam, 1809 : Loers, Cologne, 1829; Madvig, Emendationes Latinae, 1873; Mer- kel, 1876 ; Shuckburgh, Thirteen Epistles, London, 1879, corrected in 1885; Sedlmayer, Vienna, 1886; Ehwald, edition of Merkel, 1888; Housman, critical notes, Classical Review, 1897.

SIGNS AND ABBREVIATIONS

P= Parisinus.

G = Guelferbytanus.

E = Etonensis.

V = Vindobonensis.

F = Francofurtanus.

u) = the mass of MSS. of the thirteenth to

fifteenth centuries. s = a few inferior MSS. of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. Bent. = Bentley. Hein. = Heinsius. Burm. — Burmann. Merk. = Merkel. Sedl. = Sedlmayer. Ehw. = Ehwald. Pa. = Palmer. Hous. = Housman.

IN APPRECIATION OF THE HEROIDES

The Heroides are not a work of the highest order of genius. Their language, nearly always artificial, frequently rhetorical, and often diffuse, is the same throughout — whether from the lips of barbarian Medea or Sappho the poetess. The heroines and heroes who speak it are creatures from the world of legend, are not always warm flesh and blood, and rarely communicate their passions to us. The critic who cares more for the raising of a laugh than for the strict rendering of justice may with no great difficulty find room here for the exercise of his wit.

Yet the malicious critic of the Heroides will be hard to find ; for they belong to the engaging sort of art which disarms criticism. Their theme, first of all, is the universal theme of love — and of woman's love — and of woman's love in straits. The heroines that speak to us from Ovid's page may lack in convincing quality, and may not stir our passions, but they are sufficiently real to win our sympathy, and to blind us for the moment to the faults of both themselves and their sponsor. Their language may be unvarying, and may border too much on the rhetorical, but it is full-flowing, clear, euphonious, and restful. It may be artificial, but its very artificiality is of charming quality.

8

IN APPRECIATION OF THE HEROIDES

What the Heroides lose by reason of being the portrayal of legendary characters in language removed from ordinary life they gain from their pleasant quality of style, and from their constant stimulation of literary reminiscence. They should not be judged as attempts at realistic art ; their author did not aim at even naturalism'. If we must choose, they should be judged on the basis of their connection rather with literature than with life.

Yet we need not choose ; we may enjoy them as clever and genial treatments of literary themes enriched with enough of the warmly human to beget in the benevolent reader the illusion of life. Pene- lope, Briseis, Dido, and Helen no doubt interest us mainly as figures from Homer and Virgil, but even they possess qualities that give them semblance of reality : Penelope is faithful, Briseis forgiving, Dido filled with despair, and Helen with vanity. In Medea, Hypsipyle, Oenone, and Ariadne, there is a nearer approach to real passion. The wifely solicitude of Laodamia, the loving trustfulness of deserted Phyllis, and the mother's grief of Canace are still more warm with life. The stories of Acontius and Cydippe, and in greater degree of Hero and Leander, are so full of the romance of young love that we think of neither life nor letters, but simply enjoy the delightful tale. And, whatever else may be said of his heroines, in every one of them the poet has placed the most human of qualities — a heart submissive to the power of love. All the world loves a lover, and all the world has for a long time loved most of the Heroides.

P. OVIDI NASONIS HEROIDES i

Penelope Ui.ixi

Hanc tua Penelope lento tibi mittit, Ulixe —

nil mihi reseribas tu tamen ; 1 ipse veni ! Troia iacet certe, Danais hivisa puellis ;

vix Priamus tanti totaque Troia fuit. o utinam turn, cum Lacedaemona classe petebat, 5

obratus insanis esset adulter aquis ! non ego deserto iacuissem frigida leeto,

non quererer tardos ire relicta dies ; nee mihi quaerenti spatiosam fallere noctem

lassaret 2 viduas pendula tela manus. 10

Quando ego non timui graviora pericula veris ?

res est solliciti plena timoris amor, in te fingebam violentos Troas ituros ;

nomine in Hectoreo pallida semper eram. sive quis Antilochum narrabat ab hoste revietum,3 15

Antiloehus nostri causa timoris erat ;

1 tu tamen Bent. : at tamen G. Often written reseribas, tu tamen ipse veni. 2 lassaret o> : lassasset G.

3 ab hoste revietum Hous. : ab Heetore victum MSS. con- tradict» the fact. %

THE

HEROIDES OF P. OVIDIUS NASO

i

Penelope to Ulysses

This missive your Penelope sends to you, O Ulysses, slow of return that you are — yet write nothing back to me ; yourself come ! Troy, to be sure, is fallen, hated of the daughters of Greece ; but scarcely were Priam and all Troy worth the price to me." O would that then, when his ship was on the way to Lacedaemon, the adulterous lover had been overwhelmed by raging waters ! Then had I not lain cold in my deserted bed, nor would now be left alone complaining of slowly passing days ; nor would the hanging web be wearying now my widowed hands as I seek to beguile the hours of spacious night.

11 When have I not feared dangers graver than the real ? Love is a thing ever filled with anxious fear. It was upon you that my fancy ever told me the furious Trojans would rush ; at mention of the name of Hector my pallor ever came. Did someone begin the tale of Antilochus laid low by the enemy, Antilochus was cause of my alarm ; or,

" Homer is Ovid's direct source for this letter. Tennyson's Ulyxnea is of interest in connection with it.

For brief statements of the circumstances under which the heroines write their letters, and for proper names in general, consult the index.

I I

OVID

sive Menoetiaden falsis cecidisse sub armis,

flebam successu posse carere dolos. sanguine Tlepolemus Lyciam tepefecerat hastam ;

Tlepolemi leto cura novata mea est. 20

denique, quisquis ei*at castris iugulatus Achivis,

frigidius glacie pectus amantis erat. Sed bene consuluit casto deus aequus amori.

versa est in cineres sospite Troia viro. Argolici rediere duces, altaria fumant ; 25

ponitur ad patrios barbara praeda deos. grata ferunt nymphae pro salvis dona maritis ;

illi victa suis Troica fata canunt. mirantur iustique senes trepidaeque puellae ;

narrantis coniunx pendet ab ore viri. 30

atque aliquis posita monstrat fera proelia mensa,

pingit et exiguo Pergama tota mero : " hac ibat Simois ; haec est Sigeia tellus ;

hie steterat Priami regia celsa senis. illic Aeacides, illic tendebat Ulixes ; 35

hie lacer adrnissos terruit Hector equos." Omnia namque tuo senior te quaerere misso

rettulerat nato Nestor, at ille rnihi. rettulit et ferro Rhesumque Dolonaque caesos,

utque sit hie somno proditus, ille dolo. 40

ausus es, — o nimium nimiumque oblite tuoruin ! —

Thracia nocturno tangere castra dolo totque simul mactare viros, adiutus ab uno !

at bene cautus eras et raeraor ante mei !

" Patroclus in the armour of Achilles. b Tlepolemus was slain by Sarpedon, king of Lycia. c The past rises vividly in her mind. 12

THE HEROIDES I

did he tell of how the son of Menoetius fell in armour not his own/' I wept that wiles could lack success. Had Tlepolemus with his blood made warm the Lycian spear,6 in Tlepolemus' fate was all my care renewed. In short, whoever it was in the Argive camp that was pierced and fell, colder than ice grew the heart of her who loves you.

23 But good regard for me had the god who looks with favour upon chaste love. Turned to ashes is Troy, and my lord is safe. The Argolic chieftains have returned, our altars are a-smoke ; c before the gods of our fathers is laid the barbarian spoil. The young wife comes bearing thank-offering for her husband saved ; the husband sings of the fates of Troy that have yielded to his own. Righteous elder and trembling girl admire ; the wife hangs on the tale that falls from her husband's lips. And someone about the board shows thereon the fierce combat, and with scant tracing of wine pictures forth all Pergamum : " Here flowed the Simois ; this is the Sigeian land ; here stood the lofty palace of Priam the ancient. Yonder tented the son of Aeacus ; yonder, Ulysses ; here, in wild course went the frightened steeds with Hector's mutilated corpse."

37 For the whole story was told your son, whom 1 sent to seek you ; ancient Nestor told him, and he told me. He told as well of Rhesus' and Dolon's fall by the sword, how the one was betrayed by slumber, the other undone by guile. You had the daring — O too, too forgetful of your own ! — to set wily foot by night in the Thracian camp, and to slay so many men, all at one time, and with only one to aid ! Ah yes, you were cautious, indeed, and ever gave me

J3

OVID

usque metu micuere sinus, dum victor amicum 45

dictus es Ismariis isse per agmen equis. Sed mihi quid pi-odest vestris disiecta lacertis

Ilios et, murus quod fuit, esse solum, si maneo, qualis Troia durante manebam,

virque mihi dempto fine carendus abest ? 50

diruta sunt aliis, uni mihi Pergama restant,

incola captivo quae bove victor arat. iam seges est, ubi Troia fuit, resecandaque falce

luxuriat Phrygio sanguine pinguis humus ; semisepulta virum curvis feriuntur aratris 55

ossa, ruinosas occulit herba domos. victor abes, nee scire mihi, quae causa morandi,

aut in quo lateas ferreus orbe, licet ! Quisquis ad haec vertit peregrinam litora puppim,

ille mihi de te multa rogatus abit, 60

quamque tibi reddat, si te modo viderit usquam,

traditur huic digitis charta notata meis. nos Pylon, antiqui Neleia Nestoris arva,

misimus ; incerta est fama remissa Pylo. inisimus et Sparten ; Sparte quoque nescia veri.1 65

quas habitas terras, aut ubi lentus abes ? utilius starent etianmunc moenia Phoebi —

irascor votis, heu, levis ipsa meis ! scirem ubi pugnares, et tantum bella timerem,

et mea cum multis iuncta querela foret. 70

1 vestri Bent.

a If this refers to Telemachus' journey, Ovid has forgotten his Homer, or disregards it ; for in the Odyssey (2, 373) Telemachus goes without his mother's knowledge.

?4

THE HEROIDES I

first thought ! My heart leaped with fear at every word until I was told of your victorious riding back through the friendly lines of the Greeks with the coursers of Ismarus.

47 But of what avail to me that Ilion has been scattered in ruin by vour amis, and that what once was wall is now level ground — if I am still to remain such as I was while Troy endured, and must live to all time bereft of my lord ? For others Pergamum has been brought low ; for me alone it still stands, though the victor dwell within and drive there the plow with the ox he took as spoil. Now are fields of corn where Troy once was, and soil made fertile with Phrygian blood waves rich with harvest ready for the sickle ; the half-buried bones of her heroes are struck by the curved share, and herbage hides from sight her ruined palaces. A victor, you are yet not here, nor am I let know what causes your delay, or in what part of the world hard-heartedly you hide.

59 Whoso turns to these shores of ours his stranger ship is plied with many a question ere he go away, and into his hand is given the sheet writ by these fingers of mine, to render up should he but see you anywhere. We have sent to Pylos, the land of ancient Nestor, Neleus' son ; the word brought back from Pylos was nothing sure." We have sent to Sparta, too ; Sparta also could tell us nothing true. In what lands are you abiding, or where do you idly tarry ? Better for me, were the walls of Phoebus still standing in their place — ah me inconstant, 1 am wroth with the vows myself have made ! Had they not fallen, I should know where you were fighting, and have only war to fear, and my plaint would be joined. with that of many another.

15

OVID

quid timeam, ignoro — timeo tamen omnia demens,

et patet in curas area lata meas. quaecumque aequor habet,quaecumquepericula tellus,

tarn longae causas suspicor esse morae. haec ego dum stulte metuo, quae vestra libido est, 75

esse peregrino captus amore potes. forsitan et narres, quam sit tibi rustiea coniunx,

quae tantum lanas non sinat esse rudes. fallar, et hoc crimen tenues vanescat in auras,

neve, revertendi liber, abesse velis ! 80

Me pater Icarius viduo discedere lecto

cogit et immensas increpat usque moras, increpet usque licet — tua sum, tua dicar oportet ;

Penelope cQniunx semper Ulixis ero. ille tamen pietate mea precibusque pudicis 85

frangitur et vires temperat ipse suas. Dulichii Samiique et quos tulit alta Zacynthos,

turba ruunt in me luxuriosa proci, inque tua regnant nullis prohibentibus aula ;

viscera nostra, tuae dilacerantur opes. 90

quid tibi Pisandrum Polybumque Medontaque dirum

Eurymachique avidas Antinoique manus atque alios referam, quos omnis turpiter absens

ipse tuo partis sanguine rebus alis ? Irus egens pecorisque Melanthius actor edendi 95

ultimus accedunt in tua damna pudor.

a Rustiea is frequent in the Heroides. It suggests " rustic," " countryfied," "simple," " homety," "unsophisticated," but maybe rendered well by no single word.

16

THE HEROIDES I

But now, what I am to fear I know not — yet none the less I fear all things, distraught, and wide is the field lies open for my cares. Whatever dangers the deep contains, whatever the land, sus- picion tells me are cause of your long delay. While I live on in foolish fear of things like these, you may be captive to a stranger love — such are the hearts of you men ! It may be you even tell how rustic" a wife you have — one fit only to dress fine the wool. May I be mistaken, and this charge of mine be found slight as the breeze that blows, and may it not be that, free to return, you will to be away !

81 As for me — my father Iearius enjoins on me to quit my widowed couch, and ever chides me for my measureless delay. Let him chide on — yours I am, yours must I be called ; Penelope, the wife of Ulysses, ever shall I be. Yet is he bent by my faithfulness and my chaste prayers, and of himself abates his urgency. The men of Dulichium and Samos, and they whom high Zacynthus bore — a wanton throng — come pressing about me, suing for my hand. In your own hall they are masters, with none to say them nay ; my heart is being torn, your substance spoiled. Why tell you of Pisander, and of Polybus, and of Medon the cruel, and of the grasping hands of Eurymachus and Antinous, and of others, all of whom through shameful absence you yourself are feeding fat with store that was won at cost of your blood ? Irus the beggar, and Melanthius, who drives in your flocks to be consumed, are the crowning disgrace now added to your ruin.

17

OVID

Tres sumus inbelles numero, sine viribus uxor

Laertesque senex Telemachusque puer. ille per insidias paene est mihi nuper ademptus,

dum parat invitis omnibus ire Pylon.1 100

di, precor, hoc iubeant, ut euntibus ordine fatis

ille meos oculos conprimat, ille tuos ! hac faciunt custosque bourn longaevaque nutrix,

Tertius inmundae cura fidelis harae ; 2 sed neque Laertes, ut qui sit inutilis armis, 105

hostibus in mediis regna tenere potest — Teleniacho veniet, vivat modo, fortior aetas ;

nunc erat auxiliis ilia tuenda patris 3 — nee mihi sunt vires inimicos pellere teetis.

tu citius venias, portus et ai*a tuis ! 110

est tibi sitque, precor, natus, qui mollibus annis

in patrias artes erudiendus erat. respice Laerten ; ut iam sua lumina condas,

extremum fati sustinet ille diem.4 Certe ego, quae fueram te discedente puella, 115

protinus ut venias, facta videbor anus.

II

Phyllis Demophoonti

Hospita, Demophoon, tua te Rhodopeia Phyllis ultra promissum tempus abesse queror.

1 99,100 spurious Bent.

2 Ehiv. places 103, 104 after 96 : hac Tyrrell ; hec G E w. hue Bent. : hinc Merk.

18

THE HEROIDES II

97 We number only three, unused to war — a power- less wife ; Laertes, an old man ; Telemachus, a boy. He was of late all but waylaid and taken from me, while making ready, against the will of all of them, to go to Pylos. The gods grant, I pray, that our fated ends may come in due succession — that he be the one to close my eyes, the one to close yours ! To sustain our cause are the guardian of your cattle and the ancient nurse, and, as a third, the faithful ward of the unclean stye ; but neither Laertes, unable as he is to wield arms now, can sway the sceptre in the midst of our foes — Telemachus, in- deed, so he live on, will arrive at years of strength, but now should have his father's aid and guarding — nor have I strength to repel the enemy from our halls. Do you yourself make haste to come, haven and altar of safety for your own ! You have a son — and may you have him ever, is my prayer — who in his tender years should have been trained by you in his father's ways. Have regard for Laertes ; in the hope that you will come at last to close his eyes, he is withstanding the final day of fate.

115 As for myself, who when you left my side was but a girl, though you should come straightway, I surely shall seem grown an aged dame.

II

Phyllis to Demophoon

I, you it Phyllis, who welcomed you to Rhodope, Demophoon, complain that the promised day is past,

3 Birt place* 107, 108 after 98 : spurioui Sedl. Scheukel. * 111-114 spurious Bent.

19 c 2

OVID

cornua cum lunae pleno semel'orbe eoissent,

litoribus nostris ancora pacta tua est — luna quater latuit, toto quater orbe recrevit ; 5

nee vehit Actaeas Sithonis unda rates, tempora si numeres — bene quae l numeramus amantes —

non venit ante suani nostra querela diem. Spes quoque lenta fiiit ; tarde, quae credita laedunt,

credimus. invito nunc et amore noces.2 10

saepe fui mendax pro te mihi, saepe putavi 3

alba pi-ocellosos vela referre Notos. Thesea devovi, quia te dimittere nollet ;

nee tenuit cursus forsitan ille tuos. interdum timui, ne, dum vada tendis ad Hebri, 15

mersa foret cana naufraga puppis aqua, saepe deos 4 supplex, ut tu, seelerate, valeres,

cum prece turicremis sum venerata sacris ; saepe, videns ventos caelo pelagoque faventes,

ipsa mihi dixi : " si valet ille, venit." 20

denique fidus amor, quidquid properantibus obstat,

finxit, et ad causas ingeniosa fui. at tu lentus abes ; nee te iurata reducunt

numina, nee nostro motus amore redis. Demophoon, ventis et verba et vela dedisti ; 25

vela queror reditu, verba carere fide.

1 bene quae EwPlan.: quae nos 0 Merk.

2 So 6 : invita nunc et amante nocens E.

3 putavi E s Plan.: notavi O Merk.

4 deo Pa. who omits IS, 19.

" Attica.

THE HEROIDES II

and you not here. When once the horns of the moon should have come together in full orb, our shores were to expect your anchor — the moon has four times waned, and four times waxed again to her orb complete ; yet the Sithonian wave brings not the ships of Acte.a Should you count the days — which we count well who love — you will find my plaint come not before its time.

9 Hope, too, has been slow to leave me ; we are tardy in believing, when belief brings hurt. Even now my love is loath to let me think you wrong me. Oft have I been false to myself in my defence of you ; oft have I thought the gusty breezes of the south were bringing back your white sails. Theseus I have cursed, because methought he would not let you go; yet mayhap 'tis not he that has stayed your course. At times have I feared lest, while you were holding toward the waters of the Hebrus, your craft had been wrecked and engulfed in the foaming wave. Oft, bending the knee in prayer that you fare well — ah, wretched man ! — have I venerated the gods with prayer or with burning of holy incense ; oft, seeing in sky and on sea that the winds were favouring, have I said to myself : " If he do fare well, he is on the way." In a word, all things soever that hinder those in haste to come, my faithful love has tried to image forth, and my wit has been fertile in the finding of causes. But you delay long your coming ; neither do the gods by whom you swore bring von back to me, nor does love of mine move your return. Demophoon, to the winds you gave at once both promised word and sails; your sails, alas ! have not returned, your promised word has not been kept.

OVID

Die mihi, quid feci, nisi non sapienter amavi ?

erimine te potui demeruisse meo. unura in me scelus est, quod te, scelerate, recepi ;

sed scelus hoc meriti pondus et instar habet. 30 iura, fides ubi nunc, commissaque dextera dextrae,

quique ei-at in falso plurimus ore deus ? promissus socios ubi nunc Hymenaeus in annos,

qui mihi coniugii sponsor et obses erat ? per mare, quod totum ventis agitatur et undis, 35

per quod saepe ieras, per quod iturus eras, perque tuum mihi iurasti — nisi fictus et ille est —

concita qui ventis aequora mulcet, avum, per Venerem nimiumque mihi facientia tela —

altera tela arcus, altera tela faces — 40

Iunonemque, toris quae praesidet alma maritis,

et per taediferae mystica sacra deae. si de tot laesis sua numina quisque deorum

vindicet, in poenas non satis unus eris. At laceras etiam puppes furiosa refeci — 45

ut, qua desererer, finna carina foret ! — remigiumque dedi, quod me fugiturus haberes.

heu ! patior telis vulnera facta meis ! credidimus blandis, quorum tibi copia, verbis ;

credidimus generi nominibusque tuis ; 50

22

THE HEROIDES II

27 Tell me, what have I done, except not wisely love ? — and by the very fault I might well have won you for my own. The one crime which may be charged to me is that I took you, O faithless, to myself ; but this crime has all the weight and seeming of good desert. The bonds that should hold you, the faith that you swore, where are they now ? — and the pledge of the right hand you placed in mine, and the talk of God that was ever on your lying lips ? Where now the bond of Hymen promised for years of life together — promise that was my warrant and surety for the wedded state ? By the sea, all tossed by wind and wave, over which you had often gone, over which you were still to go ; and by your grandsire — unless he, too, is but a fiction — by your grandsire, who calms the windwrought wave, you swore to me ; yes, and by Venus and the weapons that wound me all too much — one weapon the bow, the other the torch ; and by Juno, the kindly ward of the bridal bed ; and by the mystical rites of the goddess who bears the torch. Should all the many gods you have wronged take vengeance for the outrage to their sacred names, your single life would not suffice.

45 Yes, and more, in my madness I even refitted your shattered ships — that the keel might be firm by which I was left behind! — and gave you the oars by which you were to fly from me. Ah me, my pangs are from wounds wrought by weapons of my own ! I had faith in your wheedling words, and you had good store of them ; I had faith in your lineage, and in the names it shows; I had faith

-3

OVID

credidimus lacrimis — an et h*e simulare docentur ?

hae quoque habent artes, quaque iubentur, eunt ? dis quoque credidimus. quo iam tot pignora nobis ?

parte satis potui qualibet inde capi. Nee moveor, quod te iuvi portuque locoque — 55

debuit haec meriti summa fuisse mei ! turpiter hospitium lecto cumulasse iugali

paenitet, et lateri conseruisse latus. quae fuit ante illanx, mallem suprema fuisset

nox mihi, dum potui Phyllis honesta mori. 60

speravi melius, quia me meruisse putavi ;

quaecumque ex merito spes venit, aequa venit. Fallere credentem non est operosa puellam

gloria, simplicitas digna favore fuit. sum decepta tuis et amans et femina verbis. 65

di faciant, laudis summa sit ista tuae ! inter et Aegidas, media statuaris in urbe,

magnificus titulis stet pater ante suis. cum fuerit Sciron lectus torvusque Procrustes

et Sinis et tauri mixtaque forma viri 70

et domitae bello Thebae fusique bimembres

et pulsata nigri regia caeca dei — hoc tua post illos titulo signetur imago :

HIC EST, CUIUS AMANS HOSPITA CAPTA DOLO EST.

de tanta rerum turba factisque parentis 75

sedit in ingenio Cressa relicta tuo.

" Theseus. 24

THE HRROIDES II

in your tears — or can these also be taught to feign ; and are these also guileful, and ready to How where bidden ? I had faith, too, in the gods by whom you swore. To what end. pray, so many pledges of faith to me ? By any part of them, however slight, I could have been ensnared.

55 I am stirred by no regret that I aided you with haven and abiding-place — only, this should have been the limit of my kindness ! Shamefully to have added to my welcome of the guest the favours of the marriage-bed is what I repent me of — to have pressed your side to my own. The night before that night I could wish had been the last for me, while I still could have died Phyllis the chaste. I had hope for a better fate, for I thought it my desert ; the hope — whatever it be — that is grounded in desert, is just.

63 To beguile a trustful maid is glory but cheaply earned ; my simple faith was worthy of regard. I was deceived by your words — I, who loved and was a woman. May the gods grant that this be your crowning praise ! In the midst of your city, even among the sons of Aegeus, go let yourself be statued, and let your mighty father" be set there first, with record of his deeds. When men shall have read of Sciron, and of grim Procrustes, and of Sinis, and of the mingled form of bull and man, and of Thebes brought low in war, and of the rout of the two- framed Centaurs, and of the knocking at the gloomy palace of the darksome god — after all these, under your own image let be inscribed these words :

THIS IS HE WHOSE WILES BETRAYED THE HOSTESS THAT LOVED HIM.

Of all the great deeds in the long career of your sire, nothing has made impress upon your nature but

25

OVID

quod solum excusat, solum miraris in illo ;

heredem patriae, perfide, fraudis agis. ilia — nee invideo — fruitur meliore marito

inque capistratis tigribus alta sedet ; 80

at mea despecti fugiunt conubia Thraces,

quod ferar externum praeposuisse meis. atque aliquis "iam nunc doctas eat," inquit, "Athenas;

armiferam Thracen qui regat, alter erit. exitus acta probat." careat successibus, opto, 85

quisquis ab eventu facta notanda putat ! at si nostra tuo spumescant aequora remo,

iam mihi, iam dicar consuluisse meis — sed neque consului, nee te mea regia tanget

fessaque Bistonia membra lavabis aqua ! 90

Ilia meis oculis species abeuntis inhaeret,

cum premeret portus classis itura meos. ausus es amplecti colloque infusus amantis

oscula per longas iungere pressa moras curaque tuis lacrimis lacrimas confundere nostras, 95

quodque foret velis aura secunda, queri et mihi discedens suprema dicere voce :

" Phylli, fac expectes Demophoonta tuum ! " Expectem, qui me numquam visurus abisti ?

expectem pelago vela negata meo ? x 100

1 So G co : negante data Pa. : velane gatata meo P.

a After Theseus' desertion of her, Ariadne was wedded to Bacchus, whose tigers and car she drives.

26

THE HEROIDES II

the leaving of his Cretan bride. The only deed that draws forth his excuse, that only you admire in him ; you act the heir to your father's guile, per- fidious one. She — and with no envy from me — enjoys now a better lord, and sits aloft behind her bridled tigers a ; but me, the Thracians whom I scorned will not now wed, for rumour declares I set a stranger before my countrymen. And some- one says : " Let her now away to learned Athens ; to rule in armour-bearing Thrace another shall be found. The event proves well the wisdom of her course.'' Let him come to naught, I pray, who thinks the deed should be condemned from its result. Ah, but if our seas should foam beneath your oar, then should I be said to have counselled well for myself, then well for my countrymen ; but I have neither counselled well, nor will my palace feel your presence more, nor will you bathe again your wearied limbs in the Bistonian wave !

91 Ever to my sight clings that vision of you as you went, what time your ships were riding the waters of my harbour, all ready to depart. You dared embrace me, and, with arms close round the neck of her who loved you, to join your lips to mine in long and lingering kisses, to mingle with my tears your own, to complain because the breeze was favouring to your sails, and. as you left my side, to Say for your last words : " Phyllis, remember well, expect your own Demophoon ! "

99 And am I to expect, when you went forth with thought never to see me more ? Am I to expect the sails denied return to my seas? And yet I do

27

OVID

et tamen expecto — redeas modo serus amanti,

ut tua sit solo tempore lapsa fides ! Quid precor infelix ? te iam tenet altera coniunx

forsitan et, nobis qui male favit, amor ; utque tibi excidimus, nullam, puto, Phyllida nosti. 105

ei mihi ! si, quae sim Phyllis et unde, rogas — quae tibi, Demojmoon, longis erroribus acto

Threicios portus hospitiumque dedi, cuius opes auxere meae, cui dives egenti

munera multa dedi, multa datura fui ; 110

quae tibi subieci latissima regna Lycurgi,

nomine femineo vix satis apta regi, qua patet umbrosum Rhodope glacialis ad Haemum,

et sacer admissas exigit Hebrus aquas, cui mea virginitas avibus libata sinistris 1 1 5

castaque fallaci zona recincta manu ! pronuba Tisiphone thalamis ululavit in illis,

et cecinit maestum devia carmen avis ; adfuit Allecto brevibus torquata colubris,

suntque sepulcrali lumina mota face ! 120

Maesta tamen scopulos fruticosaque litora caleo

quaeque patent oculis litora l lata meis. sive die laxatur humus, seu frigida lucent

sidei'a, prospicio, quis freta ventus agat ; et quaecumque procul venientia lintea vidi, 125

protinus ilia meos auguror esse deos.

1 litora MSS.: aequora Aldus Pa.

a A Fury, instead of Juno, patroness of marriage. 28

THE HEROIDES II

expect — ah, return only, though late, to her who loves you, and prove your promise false only for the time that you delay !

103 Why entreat, unhappy that I am ? It may be you are already won by another bride, and feel for her the love that favoured me but ill ; and since I have fallen from out your life, I feel you know Phyllis no more. Ah me ! if you ask who 1, Phyllis, am, and whence — I am she, Demophoon, who, when you had been driven far in wanderings on the sea, threw open to you the havens of Thrace and welcomed you as guest, you, whose estate my own raised up, to whom in your need I in my plenty gave many gifts, and would have given many still ; I am she who rendered to you the broad, broad realms of Lycurgus, scarce meet to be ruled in a woman's name, where stretches icy Rhodope to Haemus with its shades, and sacred Hebrus drives his headlong waters forth — to you, on whom mid omens all sinister my maiden innocence was first bestowed, and whose guileful hand ungndled my chaste zone ! Tisiphone was minister at that bridal, with shrieks," and the bird that shuns the light chanted her mournful note ; Allecto was there, with little serpents coiled about her neck, and the lights that waved were torches of the tomb !

121 Heavy in soul, none the less do I tread the rocks and the thicket-covered strand, where'er the sea view opens broad before my eyes. Whether bj dav the soil is loosed by warmth, or whether con- stellations coldly shine, I look ever forth to see what wind doth sweep the straits ; and whatever sails I see approaching from afar, straightway I augur them the answer to my prayers. I rush forth to

29

OVID

in freta procurro, vix me retinentibus undis,

mobile qua primas porrigit aequor aquas, quo magis accedunt, minus et minus utilis adsto ;

linquor et ancillis exeipienda cado. 130

Est sinus, adductos modice falcatus in arcus ;

ultima praerupta cornua mole rigent. hinc mihi suppositas inmittere corpus in undas

mens fuit ; et, quoniam fallere pergis, erit. ad tua me fluctus proiectam litora portent, 135

occurramque oculis intumulata tuis ! duritia ferrum ut supei'es adamantaque teque,

"non tibi sic," dices, " Phylli, sequendus eram ! " saepe venenonnn sitis est mihi ; saepe cruenta

traiectam gladio morte perire iuvat. 140

colla quoque, infidis quia se nectenda lacertis

praebuerunt, laqueis inplicuisse iuvat. stat nece matura tenenim pensare pudorem.

in necis electu parva futura mora est. Inscribere meo causa invidiosa sepulcro. 145.

aut hoc aut simili cannine notus eris :

Phyllida Demophoon leto dedit hospes amantem ; ille necis causam praebuit, ipsa manum.

30

THE HEROIDES IJ

the waters, scarce halted by the waves where first the sea sends in its mobile tide. The nearer the sails advance, the less and less the strength that bears me up ; my senses leave me, and I fall, to be caught up by my handmaids' arms.

131 There is a bay, whose bow-like lines are gently curved to sickle shape ; its outmost horns rise rigid and in rock-bound mass. To throw myself hence into the waves beneath has been my mind ; and, since you still pursue your faithless course, so shall it be. Let the waves bear me away, and cast me up on your shores, and let me meet your eyes untombed ! Though in hardness you be more than steel, than adamant, than your very self, you shall say : " Not so, Phyllis, should I have been followed by thee !" Oft do J long for poison; oft with the sword would I gladly pierce my heart and pour forth my blood in death. My neck, too, because once offered to the embrace of your false arms, I could gladly ensnare in the noose. My heart is fixed to die before my time, and thus make amends to tender purity. In the choosing of my death there shall be but small delay.

145 On my tomb shall you be inscribed the hate- ful cause of my death. By this, or by some similar verse, shall you be known :

DEMOPHOON 'TWAS SENT PHYLLIS TO HER DOOM J HER GUEST WAS HE, SHE LOVED HIM WELL.

HE WAS THE CAUSE THAT BROUGHT HER DEATH TO PASS ; HER OWN THE HAND BY WHICH SHE FELL.

31

OVID

III Briseis Achilli

Quam legis, a rapta Briseide littera venit,

vix bene barbarica Graeca notata manu. quaseumque adspicies, laerimae fecere lituras ;

sed tamen et laerimae pondera vocis habent. Si mihi pauca queri de te dominoque viroque 5

fas est, de domino pauca viroque querar. non, ego poscenti quod sum cito tradita regi,

culpa tua est — quamvis haec quoque culpa tua est ; nam simul Eurybates me Talthybiusque vocarunt,

Eurybati data sum Talthybioque comes. 10

alter in alterius iactantes lumina vultum

quaerebant taciti, noster ubi esset amor, differri potui ; poenae mora grata fuisset.

ei mihi ! discedens oscula nulla dedi ; at lacrimas sine fine dedi rupique capillos — 15

infelix iterum sum mihi visa capi ! Saepe ego decepto volui custode reverti,

sed, me qui timidam prenderet,1 hostis erat. si progressa forem, caperer ne nocte timebam,

quamlibet ad Priami munus itura nurum. 20

Sed data sim, quia danda fui — tot noctibus absum

nee repetor ; cessas, iraque lenta tua est. 1 redderet Ehw.

a Briseis was a captive from Lyrnesus, in Mysia. Iliad IX is the basis of this letter.

b Agamemnon forced Achilles to give np Briseis. Achilles having refused to aid the Greeks, Agamemnon sent an embassy to him, but the offended warrior scorned his advances.

32

THE HEROIDES III

III Briseis to Achilles

From stolen Briseis is the writing you read, scarce charactered in Greek by her barbarian hand." Whatever blots you shall see, her tears have made ; but tears, too, have none the less the weight of words.

5 If 'tis right for me to utter brief complaint of you, my master and my beloved, of you, my master and my beloved, will I utter brief complaint. That I was all too quickly delivered over to the king at his demand is not your fault — yet this, too, is your fault ; for as soon as Eurybates and Talthybius came to ask for me, to Eurybates was I given over, and to Talthybius, to go with them.'' Each, casting eyes into the face of other, inquired in silence where now was the love between us. My going might have been deferred ; a stay of my pain would have eased my heart. All me ! I had to go, and with no farewell kiss ; but tears without end I shed, and rent my hair — miserable me, I seemed a second time to suffer the captive's fate !

17 Oft have I wished to elude my guards and return to you ; but. the enemy was there, to seize upon a timid girl. Should I have gone far, I feared I should be taken in the night, and delivered over a gift to some one of the ladies of Priam's sons.

21 But grant I was given up because I must be given — yet all these nights I am absent from your side, and not demanded back ; you delay, and your

33

OVID

ipse Menoetiades turn, cum tradebar, in aurem

"quid fles ? hie parvo tempore," dixit, "eris.'' Nee repetisse parum; pugnas, ne reddar, Achille! 25

i nunc et cupidi nomen amantis habe ! venerunt ad te Telamone et Amyntore nati — ■

ille gradu propior sanguinis, ille comes — Laertaque satus, per quos comitata redirem.

auxerunt blandas grandia dona preces : 30

viginti fulvos operoso ex aere lebetas,

et tripodas septem pond ere et arte pares ; addita sunt illis auri bis quinque talenta,

bis sex adsueti vincere semper equi, quodque super\racuum est, forma praestante puellae 35

Lesbides, eversa corpora capta domo, cumque tot his — sed non opus est tibi coniuge — coniunx

ex Agamemnoniis una puella tribus. si tibi ab Atride pretio redimenda fuissem,

quae dare debueras, accipere ilia negas ! 40

qua merui culpa fieri tibi vilis, Achille ?

quo levis a nobis tarn cito fugit amor ? An miseros tristis fortuna tenaciter urget,

nee venit inceptis mollior hora malis ? 1 diruta Marte tuo Lyrnesia moenia vidi — 45

et fueram patriae pars ego magna meae ; vidi consortes pariter generisque necisque

tres cecidisse — tribus, quae mini, mater erat ; vidi, quantus erat, fusum tellure cruenta

pectora iactantem sanguinolenta virum. 50

1 malis Lehrs Hous. Plan.: nieis MSS. " Patroclud. 34

THE HEROIDES III

anger is slow. Menoetius' son himself/' at the time I was delivered up, whispered into my ear : " Why do you weep ? But a short time," he said, " will you be here."

a5 And not to have claimed me back is but a slight thing ; you even oppose my being restored, Achilles. Go now, deserve the name of an eager lover ! There came to you the sons of Amyntor and Telamon — the one near in degree of blood, the other a comrade — and Laertes' son ; in company of these I was to return. Rich presents lent weight to their wheedling prayers : twenty ruddy vessels of wrought bronze, and tripods seven, equal in weight and workmanship ; added to these, of gold twice five talents, twice six coursers ever wont to win, and — what there was no need of! — Lesbian girls surpassing fair, maids taken when their home was overthrown ; and with all these — though of a bride you have no need — as bride, one of the daughters three of Agamemnon. What you must have given had you had to buy me back from Atrides with a price, that you refuse as a gift ! What have I done that I am held thus cheap by you, Achilles ? Whither has fled your light love so quickly from me ?

43 Or can it be that a gloomy fortune still weighs the wretched down, and a gentler hour comes not when woes have once begun ? The walls of Lyriiesus I have seen laid in ruin by your soldier band — I, who myself had been great part of my father's land ; I have seen fall three who were partners alike in birth and in death — and the three had the mother who was mine ; I have seen my wedded lord stretched all his length upon the gory ground, heaving in agony

35 i) •_'

OVID

tot tamen amissis te conpensavimus unum ;

tu dominus, tu vir, tu mihi frater eras, tu mihi, iuratus per numina matris aquosae,

utile dicebas ipse fuisse capi — scilicet ut, quamvis veniam dotata, repellas 55

et mecum fugias quae tibi dantur opes ! quin etiam fama est, cum erastina fulserit Eos,

te dare nubiferis lintea velle Notis. Quod scelus ut pavidas miserae mihi contigit aures,

sanguinis atque animi pectus inane fuit. 60

ibis et — o miseram ! — cui me, violente,1 relinquis ?

quis mihi desertae mite levamen erit ? devorer ante, precor, subito telluris hiatu

aut rutilo missi fulminis igne cremer, quam sine me Phthiis canescant aequora remis, 65

et videam puppes ire relicta tuas ! si tibi iam reditusque placent patriique Penates,

non ego sum classi sarcina magna tuae. victorem captiva sequar, non nupta maritum-;

est mihi, quae lanas molliat, apta manus. 70

inter Achaeiadas longe pulcherrima matres

in thalamos coniunx ibit eatque tuos, digna nurus socero, lovis Aeginaeque nepote,

cui que senex Nereus prosocer esse velit. nos humiles famulaeque tuae data pensa trahemus, 75

et minuent plenos stamina nostra colos.

1 tu lente Bent.

" Peleus, son of Aeacus, son of Jupiter and Aegina. b Thetis, mother of Achilles, was daughter of Nereus

36

HEROIDES III

his bloody breast. For so many lost to me 1 still had only you in recompense ; you were my master, you my husband, you my brother. You swore to me by the godhead of your seaborn mother, and yourself said that my captive's lot was gain — yes, that though I come to you with dowry, you may thrust me back, scorning with me the wealth that is tendered you ! Nay, 'tis even said that when to- morrow's dawn shall have shone forth, you mean to unfurl your linen sails to the cloud-bringing winds of the south.

59 When the monstrous tale fell on my wretched and terror-stricken ears, the blood went from my breast, and with it my senses fled. You are going — ah me, wretched ! — and to whom do you leave me, O hardened of heart ? Who shall afford me gentle solace, left behind? May I be swallowed up, 1 pray, in sudden yawning of the earth, or consumed by the ruddy fire of cai*eering thunderbolt, e'er that, without me, the seas foam white with Phthian oars, and I am left behind to see your ships fart- forth ! If it please you now to return to the hearth of your fathers, I am no great burden to your fleet. As captive let me follow my captor, not as wife my wedded lord ; I have a hand well skilled to dress the wool. The most beauteous by far among the women of Achaea will come to the marriage-chamber as your bride — and may she come ! — a bride worthy of her lord's father." the grandchild of Jove and Aegina, and one whom ancient Nereus would welcome as his grandson's bride.6 As for me, I shall be a lowly slave of yours and spin off the given task, and the full distaff shall grow slender at the drawing of my threads. Only let not your lady

37

OVID

exagitet ne me tantum tua, deprecor, uxor —

quae mihi nescio quo non erit aequa niodo — neve meos coram seindi patiare capillos

et leviter dieas : " haec quoque nostra fuit." 80 vel patiare licet, dum ne contempta relinquar —

hie mihi vae ! miserae concutit ossa metus. Quid tamen expectas ? Agamemnona paenitet irae,

et iacet ante tuos Graecia maesta pedes, vince animos iramque tuam, qui cetera vincis ! 85

quid lacerat Danaas inpiger Hector opes ? arma cape, Aeacide, sed me tamen ante recepta,

et preme turbatos Marte favente viros ! propter me mota est, propter me desinat ira,

simque ego tristitiae causa modusque tuae. 90

nee tibi turpe puta precibus succumbere nostris ;

coniugis Oenides versus in arma prece est. res audita mihi, nota est tibi. fratribus orba

devovit nati spemque caputque parens, bellum erat ; ille ferox positis secessit ab armis 95

et pati'iae rigida mente negavit opem. sola virum coniunx flexit. felicior ilia !

at mea pro l nullo pondere verba cadunt. nee tamen indignor nee me pro coniuge gessi

saepius in domini serva vocata torum. 100

me quaedam, memini, dominam captiva vocabat.

" servitio," dixi, " nominis addis onus." Per tamen ossa viri subito male tecta sepulero,

semper iudiciis ossa verenda meis ; 1 pro ! Madv.

a The story of Meleager, who slew his mother Althea's brother, and was cursed by her. Refusing to aid his country in the war that followed the killing of the Calydonian boar, he was turned from his purpose by his wife Cleopatra.

38

THE HEROIDES 111

be harsh with me, I pray — for in some way I feel she will not be kino! — and suffer her not to tear my hair before your eyes, while you lightly say of me : "She, too, once was mine." Or, suffer it even so, if only I am not despised and left behind — this is the fear, ah woe is wretched me, that shakes my very bones !

83 What do you still await ? Agamemnon repents him of his wrath, and Greece lies prostrate in affliction at your feet. Subdue your own angry spirit, you who subdue all else ! Why does eager Hector still harry the Danaan lines? Seize up your armour, O child of Aeacus — yet take me back first — and with the favour of Mars rout and overwhelm their ranks. Forme your anger was stirred, through me let it be allayed ; and let me be both the cause and the measure of your gloomy wrath. Nor think it unseemly for you to yield to prayer of mine ; by the prayer of his wedded wife was the son of Oeneus roused to arms." 'Tis only a tale to me, but to you well known. Reft of her brothers, a mother cursed the hope and head of her son. There was war ; in fierce mood he laid down his arms and stood apart, and with unbending purpose refused his country aid. Only the wife availed to bend her husband. The happier she ! — for my words have no weight, and fall for naught. And yet I am not angered, nor have I borne myself as wife because oft summoned, a slave, to share my master's bed. Some captive woman once, I mind me, called me mistress. "To slavery," I replied. " you add a burden in that name."

103 None the less, by the bones of my wedded lord. ill covered in hasty sepulture bones ever to be

39

OVID

perque trium foi'tes animas, mea numina, fratrum, 105

qui bene pro patria cum patriaque iacent ; perque tuum nostrumque caput, quae iunximus una,

perque tuos enses, cognita tela meis — nulla Mycenaeum sociasse cubilia inecum

iuro ; fallentem deseruisse velis ! 110

si tibi nunc dicam : " fortissirne, tu quoque iura

nulla tibi sine me gaudia facta ! " neges. at Danai maerere putant — tibi plectra moventur,

te tenet in tepido mollis arnica sinu ! et quisquam1 quaerit, quare pugnare recuses? 115

pugna nocet, citharae noxque Venusque iuvant. tutius est iacuisse toro, tenuisse puellarn,

Threiciam digitis inerepuisse lyram, quam manibus clipeos et acutae cuspidis hastam,

et galeam pressa sustinuisse coma. 120

Sed tibi pro tutis insignia facta placebant,

partaque bellando gloria dulcis erat. an tantum dum me caperes, fera bella probabas,

cumque mea patria laus tua victa iacet ? di melius ! validoque, precor, vibrata lacerto 1 25

transeat Hectoreum Pelias hasta latus ! mittite me, Danai ! dominum legata rogabo

multaque mandatis oscula mixta feram. plus ego quam Phoenix, plus quam facundus Ulixes,

plus ego quam Teucri, credite, frater again. 130

1 So O : si quisquam (quisquis ?) P : et si quis w : et quis- (jitis y : si quis nunc quaerat or si quis forte roget Bent.

a Because Orpheus was a Thracian.

* Ajax. The three were the delegation sent by Agamem- non to offer to make amends.

40

THE HEROIDES III

held sacred in my eyes ; and by the brave souls of my three brothers, to me now spirits divine, who died well for their country, and lie well with it in death ; and by your head and mine, which we have laid each to each ; and by your sword, weapon well known to my kin — I swear that the Mycenaean has shared no couch with me ; if I prove false5 wish never to see me more ! If now I should say to you : " Most valiant one, do you swear also that you have tasted no joys apart from me ! " you would refuse. Yes, the Danai think you are mourning for me — but you are wielding the plectrum, and a tender mistress holds you in her warm embrace ! And does anyone ask wherefore do you refuse to fight ? Because the fight brings danger ; while the zither, and night, and Venus, bring delight. Safer is it to lie on the couch, to clasp a sweetheart in your arms, to tinkle with your fingers the Thracian a lyre, than to take in hand the shield, and the spear with sharpened point, and to sustain upon your locks the helmet's weight.

121 Once the deed of renown, rather than safety, was your pleasure, and glory won in warring was sweet to you. Or can it be that you favoured fierce war only till you could make me captive, and that your praise lies dead, o'ercome together with my native land ? Ye gods forfend ! and may the spear of Pelion go quivering from your strong arm to pierce the side of Hector ! Send me, O Danai ! I will be ambassadress and supplicate my lord, and carry many kisses mingled with my message. I shall achieve more than Phoenix, believe me, more than eloquent Ulysses, more than Tcucer's brother!'' It

4"

OVID

est aliquid, collum solitis tetigisse lacertis,

praesentisque oculos admonuisse sinu.1 sis licet inmitis matrisque ferocior undis,

ut taceam, lacrimis conminuere meis. Nunc quoque — sic omnes Peleus pater inpleat

armos, 135

sic eat auspiciis Pyrrhus ad arma tuis ! — respice sollicitam Briseida, fortis Achille,

nee miseram lenta ferreus ure mora ! autj si versus amor tuus est in taedia nostri,

quam sine te cogis vivere, coge mori ! 1 40

utque facisj coges. abiit corpusque colorque;

sustinet hoc animae spes tamen una tui. qua si destituor, repetam fratresque virumque —

nee tibi magnificum femina iussa mori. cur autem iubeas ? stricto pete corpora ferro ; 145

est mihi qui fosso pectore sanguis eat. me petat ille tuus, qui, si dea passa fuisset,

ensis in Atridae pectus iturus erat ! A, potius serves nostram, tua munera, vitam !

quod dederas hosti victor, arnica rogo. 150

perdere quos melius possis, Neptunia praebent

Pergama ; materiam caedis ab hoste pete, me modo, sive paras inpellere remige classem,

sive manes, domini iure venire iube ! 1 sinu 0 Ew, sinus s : suis P. 42

THE HEROIDES III

will avail something to have touched your neck with the accustomed arms, to have seen you and stirred your recollection by the sight of my bosom. Though you be cruel, though more savage than your mother's waves, even should I keep silence you will be broken by my tears.

135 Even now — so may Peleus your father fill out his tale of years, so may Pyrrhus take up arms with fortune as good as yours ! — have regard for anxious Briseis, brave Achilles, and do not hard-heartedly torment a wretched maid with long drawn out delay ! Or, if your love for me has turned to weariness, compel the death of her whom you compel to live without you ! And, as you now are doing, you will compel it. Gone is my flesh, and gone my colour ; what spirit I still have is but sustained by hope in you. If I am left by that, I shall go to rejoin my brothers and my husband — and 'twill be no boast for you to have bid a woman die. And more, why should you bid me die ? Draw the steel and plunge it in my body ; I have blood to flow when once my breast is pierced. Let me be stricken with that sword of yours, which, had the goddess not said nay, would have made its way into the heart of Atreus' son !

149 Ah, rather save my life, the gift you gave me ! What you gave, when victor, to me your foe, I ask now from you as your friend. Those whom 'twere better you destroyed, Neptunian Pergamum affords ; for matter for your sword, go seek the foe. Only, whether you make ready to speed on with the oar your ships, or whether you remain, O, by your right as master, bid me come !

43

OVID

IV

Phaedra Hippolyto

Quam nisi tu dederis, caritura est ipsa, salutem

mittit Amazonio Cressa puella viro. perlege, quodcumque est — quid epistula lecta noeebit ?

te quoque in hac aliquid quod iuvet esse potest ; his arcana notis terra pelagoque feruntur. 5

inspicit aeceptas hostis ab hoste notas. Ter tecum conata loqui ter inutilis haesit

lingua, ter in primo destitit ore sonus. qua licet et sequitur, pudor est miscendus amori ;

dicere quae puduit, scribere iussit amor. 10

quidquid Amor iussit, non est contemnere tutum ;

regnat et in dominos ius habet ille deos. ille mihi primo dubitanti scribere dixit :

"scribe ! dabit victas ferreus ille manus." adsit et, ut nostras avido fovet igne medullas, 15

figat sic animos in mea vota tuos ! Non ego nequitia socialia foedera nimpam ;

fama — velim quaeras — crimine nostra vacat. venit amor gravius, quo serius — urimur intus ;

urimur, et caecum pectora vulnus habent. 20

44

THE HEROIDES IV

IV

Phaedra to Hippoi.vtus

With wishes for the welfare which she herself, unless you give it hei-, will ever lack, the Cretan maid greets the hero whose mother was an Amazon. Read to the end, whatever is here contained — what shall reading of a letter harm ? In this one, too, there may be something to pleasure you ; in these characters of mine, secrets are borne over land and sea. Even foe looks into missive writ by foe.

7 Thrice making trial of speech with you, thrice hath my tongue vainly stopped, thrice the sound failed at first threshold of my lips. Wherever modesty may attend on love, love should not lack in it ; with me, what modesty forbade to say, love has commanded me to write. Whatever Love com- mands, it is not safe to hold for naught ; his throne and law are over even the gods who are lords of all. 'Twas he who spoke to me when first I doubted if to write or no : " Write ; the iron- hearted one will yield his hand." Let him aid me, then, and, just as he heats my marrow with his avid flame, so may he transfix your heart that it yield to my prayers !

17 It will not be through wanton baseness that I shall break my marriage-bond ; my name — and you may ask — is free from all reproach. Love has come to me, the deeper for its coming late — 1 am binning with love within ; I am burning, and my breast lias an unseen wound. As the first bearing of the yoke

45

OVID

scilicet ut teneros laedunt iuga prima iuvencos,

frenaque vix patitur de grege captus equus, sic male vixque subit primos rude pectus amores,

sarcinaque haec animo non sedet apta meo. ars fit, ubi a teneris crimen condiscitur annis ; 25

quae * venit exacto tempore, peius amat. tu nova servatae carpes libamina famae,

et pariter nostrum net uterque nocens. est aliquid, plenis pomaria carpere ramis,

et tenui primam delegere ungue rosam. 30

si tamen ille prior, quo me sine crimine gessi,

candor ab insolita labe notandus erat, at bene successit, digno quod adurimur igni ;

peius adulterio turpis adulter obest. si mihi concedat Iuno fratremque virumque, 35

Hippolytum videor praepositura Iovi! lam quoque — vix credes — ignotas mutor in artes ;

est mihi per saevas impetus ire feras. iam mihi prima dea est arcu praesignis adunco

Delia ; iudicium subsequor ipsa tuum. 40

in nemus ire libet pressisque in retia cervis

hortari celeris per iuga summa canes, aut tremulum excusso iaculum vibrare lacerto,

aut in graminea ponere corpus humo. saepe iuvat versare leves in pulvere currus 45

torquentem frenis ora fugacis equi ; nunc feror, ut Bacchi furiis Eleleides 2 actae,

3 quaeque sub Idaeo tympana colle movent,

cui Rein. Bent. ~ Elelegides P : Eleides/ 3 48-103 lost from P.

46

THE HEROIDES IV

galls the tender steer, and as the rein is scarce endured by the colt fresh taken from the drove, so does my untried heart rebel, and scarce submit to the first restraints of love, and the burden I undergo does not sit well upon my soul. Love grows to be but an art, when the fault is well learned from tender years ; she who yields her heart when the time for love is past, has a fiercer passion. You will reap the fresh first-offerings of purity long preserved, and both of us will be equal in our guilt. 'Tis something to pluck fruit from the orchard with full-hanging branch, to cull with delicate nail the first rose. If nevertheless the white and blameless purity in which I have lived before was to be marked with unwonted stain, at least the fortune is kind that buiTis me with a worthy flame ; worse than forbidden love is a lover who is base. Should Juno yield me him who is at once her brother and her lord, methinks I should prefer Hippolytus to Jove.

37 Now too — you will scarce believe it — I am changing to pursuits I did not know ; I am stirred to go among wild beasts. The goddess first for me now is the Delian, known above all for her curved bow; it is your choice that I myself now follow. My pleasure leads me to the wood, to drive the deer into the net, and to urge on the fleet hound over the highest ridge, or with arm shot forth to let fly the quivering spear, or to lay my body upon the grassy ground. Oft do I delight to whirl the light car in the dust of the course, twisting with the rein the mouth of the flying steed ; now again I am borne on, like (laughters of the Bacchic cry driven by the frenzy of their god, and those who

47

OVID

aut quas semideae Dryades Faunique bicornes

numine contactas attonnere suo. 50

namque mihi referunt, cum se furor ille remisit,

omnia ; me tacitam conscius urit amor. Forsitan hunc generis fato reddamus amorem,

et Venus ex tota gente tributa petat. luppiter Europen — prima est ea gentis origo — 55

dilexit, tauro dissimulante deum. Pasiphae mater, decepto subdita tauro,

enixa est utero crimen onusque suo. perfidus Aegides, ducentia fila secutus,

curva meae fugit teeta sororis ope. 60

en, ego nunc, ne forte parum Minoia credar,

in socias leges ultima gentis eo ! hoc quoque fatale est : placuit domus una duabus ;

me tua forma capit, capta parente soror. Thesides Theseusque duas rapuere sorores — 65

ponite de nostra bina tropaea domo ! Tempore quo nobis inita est Cerealis Eleusin,

Gnosia me vellem detinuisset humus ! tunc mihi praecipue, nee non tamen ante, placebas ;

acer in extremis ossibus haesit amor. 70

Candida vestis erat, praecincti flore capilli,

flava verecundus tinxerat ora rubor, quemque vocant aliae vultum rigidumque trucemque,

pro rigido Phaedra iudice fortis erat. sint procul a nobis iuvenes ut femina compti ! — 75

fine coli modico forma virilis amat.

" The votaries of Cybele, Great Mother of the Gods.

6 The gods caused the animal to see in her his own kind.

c The story of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth.

48

THE HEROIDES IV

shake the timhrel at the foot of Ida's ridge/* or those whom Dryad creatures half-divine and Fauns two-homed have touched with their own spirit and driven distraught. For they tell me of all these things when that madness of mine has passed away ; and I keep silence, conscious 'tis love that tortures me.

53 It may be this love is a debt I am paying, due to the destiny of my line, and that Venus is exacting tribute of me for all my race. Europa — this is the first beginning of our line — was loved of Jove ; a bull's form disguised the god. Pasiphae my mother, victim of the deluded bull,* brought forth in travail her reproach and burden. The faithless son of Aegeus followed the guiding thread, and escaped from the winding house through the aid my sister gave." Behold, now I, lest I be thought too little a child of Minos' line, am the latest of my stock to come under the law that ndes us all ! This, too, is fateful, that one house has won us both ; your beauty has captured my heart, my sister's heart was captured bv your father. Theseus' son and Theseus have been the undoing of sisters twain — rear ye a double trophy at our house's fall !

67 That time I went to Eleusis, the city of Ceres, would that the Gnosian land had held me hack ! It was then you pleased me most, and yet you had pleased before ; piercing love lodged in my deepest bones. Shining white was your raiment, hound round with flowers your locks, the blush of modesty had tinged your sun-browned cheeks, and, what others call a countenance hard and stern, in Phaedra's eve was strong instead of hard. Away from me with your young men arrayed like women ! — beauty in a man

49

OVID

te tuus iste rigor positique sine arte capilli

et levis egregio pulvis in ore decet. sive ferocis equi luctantia colla recurvas,

exiguo flexos miror in orbe pedes ; 80

seu lentmn valido torques hastile lacerto,

ora ferox in se versa lacei'tus habet, sive tenes lato venabula cornea ferro.

denique nostra iuvat x luniina, quidquid agis. Tu modo duritiam silvis depone iugosis ; 85

non sum militia 2 digna perire tua. quid iuvat incinctae studia exercere Dianae,

et Veneri numeros eripuisse suos ? quod caret alterna requie, durabile non est ;

baec reparat vires fessaque membra novat. 90

arcus — et anna tuae tibi sunt imitanda Dianae —

si numquam cesses tendere, mollis erit. clarus erat silvis Cephalus, multaeque per herbas

conciderant illo percutiente ferae ; nee tamen Aurorae male se praebebat amandum. 95

ibat ad hunc sapiens a sene diva viro. saepe sub ilicibus Venerem Cinyraque creatum

sustinuit positos quaelibet herba duos, arsit et Oenides in Maenalia Atalanta ;

ilia ferae spolium pignus amoris habet. 100

nos quoque iam primum turba numeremur in ista !

si Venerem tollas, rustica silva tua est. ipsa comes veniam, nee me latebrosa movebunt

saxa neque obliquo dente timendus aper.

1 iuvat E ia Plan. : iuvas <*> vulg.

2 materia MSS. : militia Pa. : materias digna vigore tuo Bent.: duritia Faber.

a Tithonus. * Adonis.

SO

THE HEROIDES IV

would fain be striven for in measure. That hardness of feature suits )rou well, those loeks that fall without art, and the light dust upon your handsome face. Whether you draw rein and curb the resisting neck of your spirited steed, I look with wonder at your turning his feet in circle so slight ; whether with strong arm you hurl the pliant shaft, your gallant arm draws my regard upon itself, or whether you grasp the broad-headed cornel hunting-spear. To say no more, my eyes delight in whatsoe'er you do.

s5 Do you only lay aside your hardness upon the forest ridges ; I am no fit spoil for your campaign. What use to you to practise the ways of girded Diana, and to have stolen from Venus her own due ? That which lacks its alternations of repose will not endure ; this is what repairs the strength and renews the wearied limbs. The bow — and you should imitate the weapons of your Diana — if you never cease to bend it, will grow slack. Renowned in the forest was Cephalus, and many were the wild beasts that had fallen on the sod at the piercing of his stroke ; yet he did not ill in yielding himself to Aurora's love. Oft did the goddess sagely go to him, leaving her aged spouse." Many a time beneath the ilex did Venus and he'' that was sprung of Cinyras recline, pressing some chance grassy spot. The son of Oeneus, too, took fire with love for Maenalian Atalanta ; she has the spoil of the wild beast as the pledge of his love. • Let us, too, be now first numbered in that company ! If you take away love, the forest is but a rustic place. I myself will come and be at your side, and neither rocky covert shall make me fear, nor the boar dreadful for the side- stroke of his tusk.

5'

OVID

Aequora bina suis obpugnant fluctibus isthmon, 105

et tenuis tellus audit utrumque mare, hie tecum Ti*oezena eolam, Pittheia regna ;

iam nunc est patria gratior ilia mea. tempore abest aberitque diu Neptunius heros ;

ilium Pirithoi detinet ora sui. 110

praeposuit Theseus — nisi si 1 manifesta negamus —

Pirithoum Phaedrae Pirithoumque tibi. sola nee haec ad nos iniuria venit ab illo ;

in magnis laesi rebus uterque sumus. ossa mei fratris clava perfracta trinodi 115

sparsit humi ; soror est pi-aeda relicta feris. prima securigeras inter virtute puellas

te peperit, nati digna vigore parens ; si quaeras, ubi sit — Theseus latus ense peregit,

nee tanto mater pignore tuta fuit. 120

at ne nupta quidem taedaque accepta iugali —

cur, nisi ne caperes regna paterna nothus ? addidit et fratres ex me tibi, quos tamen onmis

non ego tollendi causa, sed ille fuit. o utinam nocitura tibi, pulcherrime rerum, 125

in medio nisu viscera rupta forent ! i nunc, sic meriti lectum reverere parentis —

quern fugit et factis abdicat ipse suis ! Nee, quia privigno videar coitura noverca,

terruerint animos nomina vana tuos. 130

1 nisi si Hein.: nisi P :.nisi nos Gee.

" The king of the Lapithae, Theseus' companion on the expedition to Hades, aided by him in the war against the Centaurs.

4 Antiope, sister of Hippolyte, is here meant ; but the usual story made Hippolyte Theseus' mother.

c Palmer makes Hippohtus the antecedent of quern.

52

THE HEROIDES IV

105 There are two seas that on either side assail an isthmus with their floods, and the slender land hears the waves of both. Here with you will I dwell, in Troezen's land, the realm of Pittheus ; yon place is dearer to me now than my own native soil. The hero son of Neptune is absent now, in happy hour, and will be absent long ; he is kept by the shores of his dear Pirithous."1 Theseus — unless, indeed, we refuse to own what all may see — has come to love Pirithous more than Phaedra, Pirithous more than you. Nor is that the only wrong we suffer at his hand ; there are deep injuries we both have had from him. The bones of my brother he crushed with his triple-knotted club and scattered o'er the ground; my sister he left at the mercy of wild beasts. The first in courage among the women 6 of the battle-axe bore you, a mother worthy of the vigour of her son ; if you ask where she is — Theseus pierced her side with the steel, nor did she find safety in the pledge of so great a son. Yes, and she was not even wed to him and taken to his home with the nuptial torch — why, unless that yon. a bastard, should not come to your father's throne ? He has bestowed brothers on you, too, from me, and the cause of rearing them all as heirs has been not myself, but he. Ah, would that the bosom which was to work you wrong, fairest of nun, had been rent in the midst of its throes ! Go now, reverence the bed of a father who thus deserves of you — the bedc which he neglects and is disowning by his deeds.

VM And, should you think of me as a stepdame who would mate with her husband's son, let empty names fright not your soul. Such old-fashioned

53

OVID

ista vetus pietas, aevo moritura futuro,

rustica Saturno regna tenente fuit. Iuppiter esse pium statuit, quodcumque iuvaret,

et fas orane faeit fratre marita soror. ilia coit firma generis iunctura catena, 135

inposuit nodos cui Venus ipsa suos. nee labor est celare — licet ; pete munus ab ilia ; l

cognato poterit nomine culpa tegi. viderit amplexos aliquis, laudabimur ambo ;

dicar privigno fida noverca raeo. 140

non tibi per tenebras duri reseranda mariti

ianua, non custos decipiendus erit ; ut tenuit domus una duos, domus una tenebit ;

oscula aperta dabas, oscula aperta dabis ; tutus eris mecum laudemque merebere culpa, 145

tu licet in lecto conspiciare meo. tolle moras tantum properataque foedera iunge —

qui mihi nunc saevit, sic tibi parcat Amor ! non ego dedignor supplex humilisque precari.

lieu! ubi nunc fastus altaque verba ? iacent ! 150 et pugnare diu nee me submittere culpae

certa fui — certi siquid haberet amor ; victa precor genibusque tuis regalia tendo

bracchia ! quid deceat, non videt ullus amans. depuduit, profugusque pudor sua signa reliquit.2 155

Da veniam fassae duraque corda doma ! quod mihi sit genitor, qui possidet aequora, Minos,

quod veniant proavi fulmina torta manu,

1 licet pete munus ab ilia MSS. : licet ; pete munus ! ab ilia Ehw. : licet peccemus, amorem Pa. Sedl. : celare virum ; pete munus ab illo'i?en/. : celare ; licet ; pete munus ab ipsa Madv.: etc. 2 relinquit Ps.

54

THE HEROIDES IV

regard for virtue was rustic even in Saturn's reign, and doomed to die in the age to come. Jove fixed that virtue was to be in whatever brought us pleasure ; and naught is wrong before the gods since sister was made wife by brother. That bond of banship only holds close and firm in which Venus herself has forged the chain. Nor need you fear tin- trouble of concealment — it will be easy ; ask the aid of Venus ! Through her our fault will be covered under name of kinship. Should someone see us embrace, we both shall meet with praise ; I shall be called a faithful stepdame to the son of my lord. No portal of a dour husband will need unbolting for you in the darkness of night; there will be no guard to be eluded ; as the same root' has covered us both, the same will cover us still. Your wont has been to give me kisses unconcealed, your wont will be still to give me kisses unconcealed. You will be safe with me, and will earn praise by your fault, though you be seen upon my very couch. Only, away with tarrying, and make haste to bind our bond — so may Love be merciful to you. who is bitter to me now ! 1 do not disdain to bend my knee and humbly make entreaty. Alas! where now are my pride, my lofty words; fallen! 1 was resolved — if there was aught love could resolve — both to fight long and not to yield to fault ; but I am overcome. 1 pray to you, to clasp your knees 1 extend my queenly arms. Of what befits, no one who loves takes thought. My modesty has tied, and as it fled it left its standards behind.

156 Forgive me my confession,. and soften your hard heart! That I have for sire Minos. who rules tin seas, that from my ancestor's hand comes Inn-led the

55

OVID

quod sit avus radiis frontem vallatus acutis,

purpureo tepidum qui movet axe diem — 160

nobilitas sub amore iacet ! miserere priorum

et, mihi si non vis parcere, parce meis ! est mihi dotalis tellus Iovis insula, Crete —

serviat Hippolyto regia tota meo ! Flecte, ferox,1 animos ! potuit corrumpere taurum 165

mater ; eris tauro saevior ipse truci ? per Venerem, pareas, oro, quae plurima mecum est !

sic numquam, quae te spernere possit, ames ; sic tibi secretis agilis dea saltibus adsit,

silvaque perdendas praebeat alta feras ; 170

sic faveant Satyri montanaque numina Panes,

et cadat adversa cuspide fossus aper ; sic tibi dent Nymphae, quamvis odisse puellas

diceris, arentem quae levet unda sitim ! Addimus his precibus lacrimas quoque ; verba precantis 175

perlegis et lacrimas finge videre meas !

Oenone Paridi 2

Perlegis ? an coniunx prohibet nova ? perlege — non est ista Mycenaea littera facta manu !

1 ferox P s : feros PQ a> wig.

2 Introductory couplets found in V-XII, XVII, XX, XXI,

are omitted by Plan, and condemned by Pa. Mtrh. et at.

56

THE HEROIDKS V

lightning-stroke, that the front of my grandsire, he who moves the tepid day with gleaming chariot, is crowned with palisade of pointed rays — what of this, when my noble name is prostrate under love ? I lave pity on those who have gone before, and, if me vou will not spare, O spare my line ! To my dowry belongs the Cretan land, the isle of Jove — let my whole court be slaves to my Hippolytus!

166 Bend, O cruel one, your spirit ! My mother could pervert the bull ; will you be fiercer than a savage beast? Spare me, by Venus I pray, who is chiefest with me now. So may you never love one who will spurn you ; so may the agile goddess wait on you in the solitary glade to keep you safe, and tin- deep forest yield you wild beasts to slay ; so may tin Satyrs be your friends, and the mountain deities, the Pans, and may the boar fall pierced in full front by your spear ; so may the Nymphs — though you are said to loathe womankind — give you the flowing water to relieve your parching thirst !

175 I mingle with these prayers my tears as well. The words of her who prays, you are reading; her tears, imagine you behold !

Oenone to Paris

Will you read my letter through ? or does your new wife forbid? Read this is no letter writ by Mycenaean hand !" It is the fountain-nymph Oenone

a She taunts Paris with fear of Agamemnon and Mene laus.

57

OVID

Pegasis Oenone, Phrygiis celeberrima silvis,

laesa queror de te, si sinis, ipsa meo. Quis deus opposuit nostris sua numina votis ? 5

ne tua permaneam, quod mihi crimen obest ? leniter, ex merito quidquid patiare, ferendum est ;

quae venit indigno poena, dolenda venit. Nonduni tantus eras, cum te contenta marito

edita de magno flumine nympha fui. 10

qui nunc Priamides — absit reverentia vero ! —

servus eras ; servo nubere nympha tuli ! saepe greges inter requievimus arbore tecti,

mixtaque cum foliis praebuit herba torum ; saepe super stramen faenoque iacentibus alto 15

defensa est humili cana pruina casa. quis tibi monstrabat saltus venatibus aptos,

et tegeret catulos qua fera rupe suos ? retia saepe comes maculis distincta tetendi ;

saepe citos egi per iuga longa canes. 20

incisae servant a te mea nomina fagi,

et legor oenone falce notata tua,1 et quantum trunci, tantum mea nomina crescunt. 25

crescite et in titulos surgite recta meos ! popule, vive, precor, quae consita margine ripae

hoc in rugoso cortice carmen habes :

CUM PARIS OENONE POTERIT SPIRARE RELICTA,

AD FONTEM XANTHI VERSA RECURRET AQUA. 30

1 vy. 23, 24 omitted as spurious Merl\ :

populus est, memini, pluviali consita rivo, est in qua nostri littera scripta memor. "there is a poplar, I mind me, planted on the banks of a stream, on which is written the legend that recalls our memory."

58

THE HEROIDES V

writes, well-known to the Phrygian forests — wronged , and with complaint to make of you, you my own. if you but allow.

5 Wh,at god has set his will against my prayers? What guilt stands in my way, that I may net remain your own ? Softly must we hear whatever suffering is our desert ; the penalty that comes without deserving brings us dole.

9 Not yet so great were you when I was content to wed you — I, the nymph-daughter of a mighty Stream. You who are now a son of Priam — let not respect keep back the truth! — were then a slave; I deigned to wed a slave — 1, a nymph ! Oft among our flocks have we reposed beneath the sheltering trees, where mingled grass and leaves afforded us a couch ; oft have we lain upon the straw, or on the deep hay in a lowly hut that kept the hoar-frost off. Who was it pointed out to you the coverts apt for the chase, and the rocky den where the wild beast hid away her cubs ? Oft have 1 gone with you to stretch the hunting-net with its wide mesh ; oft have I led the fleet hounds over the long ridge. The beeches still conserve mv name carved <>n them by you, and I am read there OENONE, charac- tered by your blade; and the more the trunks, the greater grows my name. Grow on, rise high and straight to make my honours known ! O poplar, ever live, I pray, that art planted by the marge of the stream and hast in thy Beamy hark these verses :

if paris' breath shall fail not, once obnone he

doth spurn, the waters of the xanthus to their fount 3hal1

backward turn.

59

OVID

Xanthe, retro propera, versaeque recurrite lymphae !

sustinet Oenonen deseruisse Paris. Ilia dies fatum miserae mihi dixit, ab ilia

pessima mutati eoepit amoris hiemps, qua Venus et Iuno sumptisque decentior armis 35

venit in arbitrium nuda Minerva tuum. attoniti mieuere sinus, gelidusque cucurrit,

ut mihi narrasti, dura per ossa tremor, consului— neque enim modice terrebar — anusque

longaevosque senes. constitit esse nefas. 40

Caesa abies, sectaeque trabes, et classe parata

caerula cei-atas accipit unda rates, flesti discedens — hoc saltim parce negare ! x

miscuimus laerimas maestus uterque suas ; 46

non sic adpositis vincitur vitibus ulmus,

ut tua sunt collo bracchia nexa meo. a, quotiens, cum te vento quererere teneri,

riserunt comites — ille secundus erat ! 50

oscula dimissae quotiens repetita dedisti !

quam vix sustinuit dicere lingua " vale " ! Aura levis rigido pendentia liritea malo

suscitat, et remis eruta canet aqua, prosequor infelix oculis abeuntia vela, 55

qua licet, et lacrimis umet harena meis, utque celer venias, virides Nereidas oro —

scilicet ut venias in raea damna celer !

1 vv. 44, 45 omitted as spurious Merk. :

praeterito magis est iste pudendus amor, et flesti et nostros vidisti flentis ocellos. " the love that holds you now is more to your shame than the one of yore. You both wept and you saiu my weeping eyes."

6o

THE HEROIDES V

O Xanthus, backward haste ; turn, waters, and How again to your fount ! Paris has deserted Oenone, and endures it.

33 That day spoke doom for wretched me, on that day did the awful storm of changed love begin. \\ hen Venus and Juno, and unadorned Minerva, more comely had she borne her anus, appeared before you to be judged. My bosom leaped with amaze as you told me of it, and a chill tremor rushed through my hard bones. 1 took counsel — for I was no little terrified — with grandams and long-lived sires. 'Twas clear to us all that evil threatened me.

41 The firs were felled, the timbers hewn ; your fleet was ready, and the deep-blue wave received the waxed crafts. Your tears fell as you left me — this, at least, deny not! We mingled our weeping, each a prey to grief; the elm is not so closely clasped by the clinging vine as was my neck by your embracing arms. Ah, how oft. when you com- plained that you were kept by the wind, did your comrades smile ! — that wind was favouring. How oft, when you had taken your leave of me. did you return to ask another kiss ! How your tongue could scarce endure to say " Farewell ! "

53 A light breeze stirs the sails that hang idly from the rigid mast, and the water foams white with the churning of the oar. In wretchedness I follow with my eyes the departing sails as far as 1 may, and the sand is humid with my tears; that you may swiftly come again. I prav the sea-green daughters of Nereus — ves, that vou may swiftly come to m\ undoing! Expected to return in answer to m\

Oi

OVID

votis ergo meis alii rediture redisti ?

ei mihi, pro dira paelice blanda fiii ! 60

Adspicit inmensum moles nativa profundum —

mons fuit ; aequoreis ilia resistit aquis. hinc ego vela tuae cognovi prima carinae,

et mihi per fluctus impetus ire fuit. dum moror, in summa fulsit mihi purpura prora — 65

pertimui ; cultus non erat ille tuus. fit propior terrasque cita ratis attigit aura ;

femineas vidi corde tremente genas. non satis id fuerat — quid enim furiosa morabar ? —

haerebat gremio turpis arnica tuo ! 70

tunc vero rupique sinus et pectora planxi,

et secui madidas ungue rigente genas, inplevique sacram querulis ululatibus Iden

illuc has lacrimas in mea saxa tuli. sic Helene doleat desertaque coniuge ploret, 75

quaeque prior nobis intulit, ipsa ferat ! Nunc tibi conveniunt, quae»te per aperta sequantur

aequora legitimos destituantque viros ; at cum pauper eras armentaque pastor agebas,

nulla nisi Oenone pauperis uxor erat. 80

non ego miror opes, nee me tua regia tangit

nee de tot Priami dicar ut una nurus — non tamen ut Priamus nymphae socer esse recuset,

aut Hecubae fuerim dissimulanda nurus ;

62

THE HEROIDES V

vows, have you returned for the sake of another? Ah me, 'twas for the sake of a cruel rival that my persuasive prayers were made !

61 A mass of native rock looks down upon the unmeasured deep — a mountain it really is; it stavs the billows of the sea. From here I was the first to spy and know the sails of your bark, and mv heart's impulse was to rush through the waves to you. While I delayed, on the highest of the prow I saw the gleam of purple — fear seized upon me ; that was not the manner of your garb. The craft comes nearer, borne on a freshening breeze, and touches the shore ; with trembling heart I have caught the sight of a woman's face. And this was not enough — why was I mad enough to stay and sec'- in pour embrace that shameless woman clung ! Then indeed did I rend my bosom and beat mv breast, and with the hard nail furrowed my streaming cheeks, and filled holy Ida with wailing cries of lamentation ; yonder to the rocks 1 love 1 bore mv tears. So may Helen's grief be, and so her lamenta tion, when she is deserted by her love : and what she was first to bring on me may sin- herself endure !

77 Your pleasure now is in jades who follow \oii over the open sea, leaving behind their lawful wedded lords ; but when you were poor and shepherded the flocks, Oenone was your wife, poor though you were, and none else. I am not dazzled 1>\ your wealth, nor am I touched by thought of your palace, nor would I be called one of the many wives of Priam's sons — yet not that Priam would disdain a nymph as wife to his son, or that Hecuba would have to hide her kinship with me ; 1 am

63

OVID

dignaque sum et cupio fieri matrona potentis ; 85

sunt mihi, quas possint sceptra decere, manus. nee me, faginea quod tecum fronde iacebam,

despice ; purpureo sum magis apta toro. Denique tutus amor meus est ; tibi nulla parantur

bella, nee ultrices advehit unda rates. 90

Tyndaris infestis fugitiva reposcitur armis ;

hac venit in thalamos dote superba tuos. quae si sit Danais reddenda, vel Hectora fratrem,

vel cum Deipbobo Polydamanta roga ; quid gravis Antenor, Priamus quid suadeat ipse, 95

consule, quis aetas longa magistra fuit ! x turpe rudimentum, patriae praeponere raptam.

causa pudenda tua est ; iusta vir arma movet. Nee tibi, si sapias, fidam promitte Lacaenam,

quae sit in amplexus tarn cito versa tuos. 100

ut minor Atrides temerati foedera lecti

clamat et externo laesus amore dolet, tu quoque clamabis. nulla reparabilis arte

laesa pudicitia est ; deperit ilia semel. ardet amore tui ? sic et Menelaon amavit. 105

nunc iacet in viduo credulus ille toro. felix Andromache, certo bene nupta marito !

uxor ad exemplum fratris habenda fui \ tu levior foliis, turn cum sine pondere suci

mobilibus ventis arida facta volant ; 110

1 From 97 to VI, 49 are missing m P. " Of his career as a prince, after his recognition. 64

THE HEROIDKS \

worthy of being, and I desire to be. the matron of a puissant lord ; my hands are such as the sceptre could well beseem. Nor despise me because once I pressed with you the beeehen frond ; I am better suited for the purpled marriage-bed.

89 Remember, too, my love can bring no harm ; it will beget you no wars, nor bring avenging ships across the wave. The Tyndarid run-away is now demanded back by an enemy under arms ; this is the dower the dame brings proudly to your marriage-chamber. Whether she should be rendered back to the Danai, ask Hector your brother, if you will, or Deiphobus and Polydamas ; take counsel with grave Antenor, find out what Priam's self persuades, whose long lives have made them wise. 'Tis but a base beginning," to prize a stolen mistress more than your native land. Your case is one that calls for shame ; just arc the anus her lord takes up.

99 Think not, too, if you arc wise, that the Laconian will be faithful — she who so quickly turned to your embrace. Just as the younger Atrides cries out at the violation of his marriage- bed, and feels his painful wound from the wife who loves another, you too will cry. By no art may purity once wounded be made whole; 'tis lost. lost once and for all. Is she ardent with love for you? So, too, she loved Menelaus. He. trusting fool that he was, lies now in a deserted bed. Happy Andromache, well wed to a constant mate ! I was a wife to whom you should have clung alter your brother's pattern; but you — are lighter than leaves what time their juice has failed, and dry they flutter in the shifting breeze; you have less weight than

65

OVID

et minus est in te quam summa pondus arista,

quae levis adsiduis solibus usta riget. Hoc tua — nam recolo— quondam germana canebat,

sic mihi diff'usis vaticinata comis : " quid facis, Oenone ? quid harenae semina

mandas ? 115

non profecturis litora bubus aras. Graia iuvenca venit, quae te patriamque domumque

perdat ! io prohibe ! Graia iuvenca venit ! dum licet, obscenam ponto demergite x puppim !

heu ! quantum Phrygii sanguinis ilia vehit ! " 120 Dixerat ; in cursu famulae rapuere furentem ;

at mihi flaventes diriguere comae, a, nimium miserae vates mihi vera fuisti —

possidet, en, saltus ilia 2 iuvenca meos ! sit facie quamvis insignis, adultera certe est ; 125

deseruit socios hospite capta deos. illam de patria Theseus — nisi nomine fallor —

nescio quis Theseus abstulit ante sua. a iuvene et cupido credatur reddita virgo ?

unde hoc conpererim tarn bene, quaeris ? amo. 130 vim licet appelles et culpam nomine veles ;

quae totiens rapta est, praebuit ipsa rapi. at manet Oenone fallenti casta marito —

et poteras falli legibus ipse tuis ! Me Satyri celeres — silvis ego tecta latebam — 135

quaesierunt rapido, turba proterva, pede' cornigerumque caput pinu praecinctus acuta

Faunus in inmensis, qua tumet Ida, iugis.

1 dimergite s: di mergite E * Hein.

2 Graia G Merk. : ilia E a, Plan.

a Cassandra.

6 Theseus and Pirithous had carried away Helen in her early youth.

66

THE HEROIDES V

the tip of the spear of grain, burned light and crisp by ever-shining suns.

113 This, once upon a time — for I call it back, to mind — your sister* sang to me, with locks let loose, foreseeing what should come: "What art thou doing, Oenone ? Why commit seeds to sand ? Thou art ploughing the shores with oxen that will accomplish naught. A Greek heifer is on the way, to ruin thee. thy home-land, and thy house ! Ho, keep her far ! A Greek heifer is coming ! While yet ye may, sink in the deep the unclean ship ! Alas, how much of Phrygian blood it hath aboard ! "

121 She ceased to speak ; her slaves seized on her as she madly ran. And I — my golden locks stood stiffly up. Ah, all too true a prophetess you were to my poor self — she has them, lo, the heifer has my pastures ! Let her seem how fair soever of face, none the less she surely is a jade ; smitten with a stranger, she left behind her marriage-gods. Theseus — unless I mistake the name — one Theseus, even before, had stolen her away from her father's land.'' Is it to be thought she was rendered back a maid, by a young man and eager? Wrhence have I learned this so well? you ask. I love. You may call it violence, and veil the fault in the word; yet she who his been so often stolen has surely lent herself to theft. But Oenone remains chaste, false though her husband prove — and, after your own example, sin might have played you false.

135 Me, the swift Satyrs, a wanton rout with nimble foot, used to come in quest of — where I would lie hidden in covert of the wood — and Faunus. with horned head girt round with sharp pine needles, where Ida swells in boundless ridges. Me, tin

67

OVID

me fide conspicuus Troiae munitor amavit,

admisitque meas ad sua dona manus.1 146

quaecumque herba potens ad opem radixque medendo 2

utilis in toto nascitur orbe, mea est. me miseraim quod amor non est medieabilis herbis !

deficior prudens artis ab arte mea. 150

Quod nee graminibus tellus fecunda creandis 153

nee deus, auxilium tu mihi ferre potes. et potes, et merui — dignae miserere puellae ! 155

non ego cum Danais arraa cruenta fero — sed tua sum tecumque fui puerilibus annis

et tua, quod superest temporis, esse precor!

VI Hypsipyle Iasoni

Litora Thessaliae reduci tetigisse carina

diceris auratae vellere dives ovis. gratulor incolumi, quantum sinis ; hoc tamen ipsum 3

debueram scripto certior4 esse tuo. nam ne pacta tibi praeter mea regna redires, 5

cum cuperes, ventos non habuisse potes ; quamlibet adverso signetur epistula vento.

Hypsipyle missa digna salute fui.

1 vv. 140-145, 151, 152 condemned Mirk :

ille meae spolium virginitatis habet, 140

id quoque luctando ; rupi tamen ungue capillos,

oraque sunt digitis aspei'a facta meis ; nee pretium stupri gemmas aur unique poposci :

turpiter ingenuum munera corpus emunt ; ipse, ratus dignam, medicas mihi tradidit aites 145

ipse repertor opis vaccas pavisse Pheraeas 151

fertur et a nostro saucius igne fuit.

68

THE HEROIDES VI

builder of Troy, well known for keeping faith, loved, and let my hands into the secret of his gifts. Whatever herb potent for aid, whatever root that is used for healing grows in all the world, is mine. Alas, wretched me, that love may not be healed by herbs ! Skilled in an art, I am left help- less by the very art I know.

153 The aid that neither earth, fruitful in the bring- ing forth of herbs, nor a god himself, can give, you have the power to bestow on me. You can bestow it, and I have merited — have pity on a deserving maid ! I come with no Danai, and bear no bloody armour — but I am yours, and I was your mate in childhood's years, and yours through all time to come I pray to be !

VI

Hypsipvi.e to Jason

You are said to have touched the shores of Thessaly with safe-returning keel, rich in the fleece of the golden ram. I speak you well for your safety — so far as you give me chance ; yet of this very thing I should have been informed by message of your own. For the winds might have tailed yon, even though you longed to see me, and kept you from returning by way of the realms I pledged you;" but a letter may be written, howe'er ad- verse the wind. Hypsipyle deserved the sending of a greeting.

° As her marriage portion.

2 medendo Ehw.: medendi MSS. : medenti Hein.

3 ipsum Plan, s : ipso (? w ■. ipsa Hein. Ehw.

4 So (he xlfSS.: delmcrat . . . certiua Pa.

69

OVID

Cur mihi fama prior de te quam littera venit :

isse sacros Martis sub iuga panda boves, 10

seminibus iactis segetes adolesse virorum

inque necem dextra non eguisse tua, pervigilem spolium pecudis servasse draconem,

rapta tamen forti vellera fulva manu ? haec ego si possem timide credentibus " ista 1 5

ipse mihi seripsit " dicere, quanta forem ! Quid queror officium lenti cessasse mariti ?

obsequium, nianeo si tua, grande tuli ! barbara narratur venisse venefiea tecum,

in mihi promissi parte recepta tori. 20

eredula res amor est ; utinam temeraria dicar

criminibus falsis insimulasse virum ! nuper ab Haemoniis hospes mihi Thessalus oris

venerat, et tactum vix bene limen erat, " Aesonides," dixi, "quid agit meus ? " ille pudore 25

haesit in opposita lumina fixus humo. protinus exilui tunicisque a pectore ruptis

" vivit ? an," exclamo, "me quoque fata vocant ? " " vivit," ait. timidum quod amat x ; iurare coegi.

vix mihi teste deo credita vita tua est. 30

Utque animus rediit, tua facta requirere coepi.

narrat aenipedes Martis arasse boves, vipereos dentes in humum pro semine iactos,

et subito natos arma tulisse viros —

1 timidum quod amat E s Shuckburgh Hous. : timidumque mihi G s : timidus timidum Pa.

70

THE HERO IDES VI

9 Why was it rumour brought me tidings of you, rather than lines from your hand ? — tidings that the sacred bulls of Mars had received the curving yoke ; that at the scattering of the seed there sprang forth the harvest of men, who for their doom had no need of your right arm; that the spoil of the ram, the deep-gold fleece the unsleeping dragon guarded, had nevertheless been stolen away by your hold hand. Could I say to those who are slow to en (lit these reports, " He has written me this with his own hand,'' how proud should I be !

17 But why complain that my lord has been slow in his duty ? I shall think myself treated with all indulgence, so I remain yours. A bar- barian poisoner, so the story goes, has come with you, admitted to share the marriage-couch you promised me. Love is quick to believe ; may it prove that I am hasty, and have brought a groundless charge against my lord ! Only now from Haemonian borders came a Thessalian stranger to my gates. Scarce had he well touched the threshold, when I cried, "How doth my lord, the son of Aeson ? " Speechless he stood in embarrassment, his eyes fixed fast upon the ground. I straight leaped up, and rent the garment from my breast. " Lives he?" I cried, "or must fate call me too?" "He lives," was his reply. Full of fears is love ; I made him say it on his oath. Scarce with a god to witness could I believe you living.

31 When calm of mind returned, I began to ask of your fortunes. He tells me of the brazen- footed oxen of Mars, how they ploughed, of the serpent's teeth scattered upon the ground in way of seed, of men sprung suddenly forth and bearing

7i

OVID

terrigenas populos civili Marte peremptos 35

inplesse aetatis fata diurna suae, devictus serpens, iterum, si vivat Iason,

quaerimus ; alternant spesque timorque fidein.1 Singula dum narrat, studio cursuque loquendi

detegit ingenio vulnera nostra suo. 40

heu ! ubi pacta fides ? ubi conubialia iura

faxque sub arsuros dignior ire rogos ? non ego sum furto tibi cognita ; pronuba Iuno

adfuit et sertis tempora vinctus Hymen, at mihi nee Iuno, nee Hymen, sed tristis Erinys 45

praetulit infaustas sanguinolenta faces. Quid mihi cum Minyis, quid cum Dodonide 2 pinu ?

quid tibi cum patria, navita Tiphy, mea ? non erat hie aries villo spectabilis aureo,

nee senis Aeetae regia Lemnos erat. 50

certa fui primo — sed me mala fata trahebant —

hospita feminea pell ere castra manu ; Lenmiadesque viros, nimium quoque, vincere norunt.

milite tarn forti causa 3 tuenda fuit ! Urbe virum vidi, tectoque animoque recepi ! 55

hie tibi bisque aestas bisque cucurrit hiemps. tertia messis erat, cum tu dare vela eoactus

inplesti lacrimis talia verba tuis : " abstrahor, Hypsipyle ; sed dent modo fata recursus,

vir tuus hinc abeo, vir tibi semper ero. 60

1 vv, 31-38 spurious Merle. Pa.: 31-36 defended Horn.

2 Dodonide Plan.: Tritonide MSS.

s causa Merle Pa.: vita P2G E m Plan.: fortuna Pv

a The Argo, with whose building Dodona in Thessal}' had to do.

6 The women of Lemnos had once slain all the men in the island as a measure of revenge against their husbands, who had taken Thracian women in their stead.

72

THE HEROINES VI

arms — earth-horn peoples slain in combat with their fellows, filling out the fates of their lives in the space of a day. He tells of the dragon overcome. Again I ask if Jason lives; hope and fear bring trust and mistrust by turns.

3'-' While part by part he tells the tale, such, in the rushing eagerness of Ins speech, is his uncon- scious art that he lays bare my wounds. Alas ! where is the faith that was promised me? Where the bonds of wedlock, and the marriage torch, more fit to set ablaze my funeral pile? I was not made acquaint with you in stealthy wise ; Juno was there to join us when we were wed, and Hymen, his temples bound with wreaths. And vet neither Juno nor Hymen, but gloomy Erinys, stained with blood, carried before me the unhallowed torch.

47 What had I with the Minyae, or Dodona's pine ? a What had you with my native land, O helmsman Tiphys ? There was here no ram, sightly with golden fleece, nor was Lemnos the royal home of old Aeetes. I was resolved at first — but my ill fate drew me on — to drive out with my women's band the stranger troop; the women of Lemnos know — yea, even too well — how to vanquish men.'' I should have let a soldiery so brave defend my cause.

55 But I looked on the man in my city : I welcomed him under mv roof and into my heart ! Here twice the summer fled for you, here twice tin- winter. It was the third harvest when you were compelled to set sail, and with your tears poured forth such words as these: "I am sundered from thee. Hyp sipyle ; but so the fates grant me return, thine own I leave thee now, and thine own will 1 ever be.

OVID

quod tamen e nobis gravida celatur in alvo,

vivat, et eiusdem simus uterque parens ! " Hactenus, et lacrimis in falsa cadentibus ora

cetera te memini non potuisse loqui. Ultimus e soeiis sacram conscendis in Argon. 65

ilia volat ; ventus concava vela tenet ; caerula propulsae subducitur unda carinae ;

terra tibi, nobis adspiciuntur aquae, in latus omne patens turns circumspicit undas ;

hue feror, et lacrimis osque sinusque madent. 70 per lacrimas specto, cupidaeque faventia menti

longius adsueto lumina nostra vident. adde preces castas inmixtaque vota timori —

nunc quoque te salvo persoluenda mihi. Vota ego persolvam ? votis Medea fruetur ! 75

cor dolet, atque ira mixtus abundat amor, dona feram templis, vivum quod Iasona perdo ?

hostia pro damnis concidat icta meis ? Non equidem secura fui semperque verebar,

ne pater Argolica sumeret urbe nurum. 80

Argolidas timui — nocuit mihi barbara paelex !

non expectata vulnus ab hoste tuli. nee facie meritisque placet, sed carmina novit

diraque cantata pabula falce metit. ilia reluctantem cursu 1 deducere lunam 85

nititur et tenebris abdere solis equos ;

1 cursu P Eai : curru s Hein. " Built at the instigation of .\thena. 74

THE HEROIDES VI

What lieth heavy in thy bosom from me — may it come to live, and may we both share in its parentage ! "

63 Thus did you speak; and with tears streaming down your false face I remember you could say no more.

65 You are the last of your band to board the sacred Argo.rt It flies upon its way; the wind bellies out the sail ; the dark-blue wave glides from under the keel as it drives along ; your gaze is on the land, and mine is on the sea. There is a tower that looks from every side upon the waters round about ; thither I betake myself, my face and bosom wet with tears. Through my tears I gaze ; my eyes are gracious to my eager heart, and see farther than their wont. Add thereto pure-hearted prayers, and vows mingled with fears — vows which I must now fulfil, since you are safe.

75 And am I to absolve these vows — vows but for Medea to enjoy? My heart is sick, and surges with mingled wrath and love. Am I to bear gifts to the shrines because Jason lives, though mine no more? Is a victim to fall beneath the stroke for the loss that has come to me ?

70 No, I never felt secure ; but my fear was ever that your sire would look to an Argolic city for a bride to his son. 'Twas the daughters of Argolis I feared — yet my ruin has been a barbarian jade ! The wound I feel is not from the foe whence I thoughl to see it come. Her charm for you is neither in her beauty nor her merit; but you are made hers by the incantations she knows, by the enchanted blade with which she garners the baneful herb. She strh es with the reluctant moon, to bring it down from its course in the skies, and makes hide away in shadows

75

OVID

ilia refrenat aquas obliquaque flumina sistit ;

ilia loco silvas vivaque saxa movet. per tumulos errat passis discincta capillis

certaque de tepidis colligit ossa rogis. 90

devovet absentis simulacraque cerea figit,

et miserum tenuis in iecur urget acus — et quae nescierim melius, male quaeritur herbis

moribus et forma eonciliandus amor. Hanc potes ampleeti thalamoque relictus in uno 95

inpavidus somno nocte silente frui ? scilicet ut tauros, ita te iuga ferre coegit

quaque feros anguis, te quoque mulcet ope. adde, quod adscribi factis procerumque tuisque

se facit,1 et titulo coniugis uxor obest. 100

atque aliquis Peliae de partibus acta venenis

inputat et populum, qui sibi credat, habet : " non haec Aesonides, sed Phasias Aeetine

aurea Phrixeae terga revellit ovis." non probat Alcimede mater tua — consule

matrem — 105

non pater, a gelido cui venit axe nurus. ilia sibi a Tanai Scythiaeque paludibus udae

quaerat et a patria Phasidis usque virum ! Mobilis Aesonide vernaque incertior aura,

cur tua polliciti pondere verba carent ? 110

vir meus hinc ieras, vir non meus inde redisti.

sim reducis coniunx, sicut euntis eram !

1 facit fj Es, Ehuw favet P : fa vet O Merh, 76

THE HEROIDES VI

the steeds of the sun ; she reins the waters in, and stays the down-winding stream ; she charms life into trees and rocks, and moves them from their place. Among sepulchres she stalks, ungirded, with hair Mowing loose, and gathers from the yet warm funeral pyre the appointed bones. She vows to their doom the absent, fashions the waxen image, and into its wretched heart drives the slender needle — and other deeds 'twere better not to know. Ill sought by herbs is love that should be won by virtue and by beauty.

95 A woman like this can you embrace ? Can you be left in the same chamber with her and not feel fear, and enjoy the slumber of the silent night? Surely, she must have forced you to bear the yoke, just as she forced the bulls, and has you subdued by the same means she uses with fierce dragons. Add that she has her name writ in the record of your own and your heroes' exploits, and the wife obscures the glory of the husband. And someone of the partisans of Pelias imputes your deeds to her poisons, and wins the people to believe : " This fleece of gold from the ram of Phrixus the son of Aeson did not seize away, but the Phasian girl, Aeetes' child." Your mother Alcimede — ask counsel of your mother — favours her not, nor your sire, who sees his son's bride come from the frozen north. Let her seek for herself a husband — from the Tanais, from the marshes of watery Scythia, even from her own land of Phasis !

109 O changeable son of Aeson, more uncertain than the breezes of springtime, why lack your words the weight a promise claims ? My own you went forth hence ; my own you have not returned. Let me be your wedded mate now you arc come back,

77

OVID

si te nobilitas generosaque nomina tangunt —

en, ego Minoo nata Thoante feror ! Bacchus avus ; Bacchi coniunx redimita corona 115

praeradiat stellis signa minora suis. dos tibi Lemnos erit, terra ingeniosa colenti ;

me quoque dotalis l inter habere potes. Nunc etiam peperi ; gratare ambobus, Iason !

dulce mihi gravidae fecerat auctor onus. 120

felix in numero quoque sum prolemque gemellam,

pignora Lucina bina favente dedi. si quaeris, cui sint similes, cognosceris illis.

fallere non norunt ; cetera patris habent. legates quos paene dedi pro matre ferendos ; 125

sed tenuit coeptas saeva noverca vias. Medeam timui : plus est Medea noverca ;

Medeae faciunt ad scelus omne manus. Spai-gere quae fratris potuit lacerata per agros

corpora, pignoribus parceret ilia meis ? 1 30

banc, banc,2 o demens Colchisque ablate venenis,

diceris Hypsipyles praeposuisse toro ! turpiter ilia virum cognovit adultera virgo ;

me tibi teque mihi taeda pudica dedit. prodidit ilia patrem ; rapui de clade Thoanta. 135

deseruit Colchos ; me mea Lemnos habet.

1 dotales Sahnasius : quoque ///////, U'ith 1 and s risible P : quod tales G s : res tales many MSS.

2 hanc hanc Pa.: hanc P : hanc tamen O w.

a Nebrophonus and Euneus, according to Apollodorus ; according to Hyginus, Euneus and Deiphilus.

* So Medea had done with Absyrtus, to delay her father's pursuit of Jason and herself.

0 She had saved her father from the general massacre of the men of Lemnos.

78

THE HEROIDES VI

as I was when you set forth ! If noble blood and generous lineage move you — lo, I am known as daughter of Minoan Thoas ! Bacchus was my grand- sire ; the bride of Bacchus, with crown-encircled brow, outshines with her stars the lesser constella- tions. Lemnos will be my marriage portion, land kindly-natured to the husbandman; and me, too, you will possess among the subjects my dowry brings.

119 And now, too, I have brought forth ; rejoice for us both, Jason ! Sweet was the burden that I bore its author had made it so. I am happy in the number, too, for by Lucina's kindly favour I have brought forth twin offspring, a pledge for each of us.*1 If you ask whom they resemble, 1 answer, yourself is seen in them. The ways of deceit they know not ; for the rest, they are like their father. I almost gave them to be carried to you, their mother's ambassa dors; but thought of the cruel stepdame turned me back from the path I would have trod. 'Twas Medea I feared. Medea is more than a stepdame; the hands of Medea are fitted for any crime.

129 Would she who could tear her brother limb from limb and strew him o'er the fields be one to spare my pledges?6 Such is she, such the woman, () madman swept from your senses by the poisons of Colchis, for whom you are said to have slighted the marriage-bed with Hypsipyle ! base and shameless was the way that maid became your bride; but the bond that gave me to you, and you to me, was chaste. She betrayed her sire; I rescued from death my father Thoas.0 She deserted the Colchians ; my Lemnos has me still. What matters aught, if sin is

7"

OVID

Quid refert, scelerata piam si vincet et ipso

criiiiine dotata est emeruitque viruni ? Lemniadum facinus culpo, non miror, Iason ;

quamlibet infirmis ipse } dat arma dolor. 1 40

die age, si ventis, ut oportuit, actus iniquis

intrasses portus tuque comesque meos, obviaque exissem fetu comitante gemello —

hiscere nempe tibi terra roganda fuit ! — quo vultu natos, quo me, seelerate, videres ? 145

perfidiae pretio qua neee dignus eras ? ipse quidem per me tutus sospesque fuisses —

non quia tu dignus, sed quia mitis ego. paelicis ipsa nieos inplessem sanguine vultus,

quosque venefieiis abstulit ilia suis ! 150

Medeae Medea forem ! quodsi quid ab alto

iustus ad est votis Iuppiter ipse 2 meis, quod gemit Hypsipyle, lecti quoque subnuba nostri

maereat et leges sentiat ipsa suas ; utque ego destituor eoniunx materque duorum, 155

a totidem natis orba sit ilia viro ! nee male parta diu teneat peiusque relinquat —

exulet et toto quaerat in orbe f'ugam ! quam fratri germana fuit miseroque parenti

filia, tarn natis, tarn sit acerba viro ! 160

1 ipse P2 : ls^e MaAv.

- ipse the MSS. : ilia Hein. Bent. Pa.

8o

THE HEROIDRS VI

to be set before devotion, and she lias won her husband with the very crime she brought him as her dower ?

139 The vengeful deed of the Lemnian women I condemn, Jason, I do not marvel at it ; passion itself drives the weak, however powerless, to take up arms. Come, say, what if, driven by unfriendly gales, you had entered my harbours, as 'twere fitting you had done, you and your companion, and I had come forth to meet you with my twin babes — surely you must have prayed earth to yawn for you — with what countenance could you have gazed upon your children, O wretched man, with what counten- ance upon me ? What death would you not deserve as the price of your perfidy ? And yet you yourself would have met with safety and protection at my hands — not that you deserved, but that 1 was merciful. But as for your mistress— with my own hand I would have dashed my face with her blood, and your face, that she stole away with her poisonous arts ! I would have been Medea to Medea !

151 But if in any way just Jupiter himself from on high attends to my prayers, may the woman who intrudes upon my marriage-bed suffer tin- wots in which Hypsipyle groans, and feel the lot she her- self now brings on me ; and as 1 am now left alone, wife and mother of two babes, so may she one day be reft of as many babes, and of her husband ! Nor may she long keep her ill-gotten gains, but leave them in worse hap — let her he an exile, and seek a refuge through the entire world ! A bitter sister to her brother, a hitter daughter to her wretched sire. may she he as bitter to her children, and as bitter t" her husband! When she shall have no hope more of

Si

OVID

cum mare, cum terras consumpserit, aera temptet ;

erret inops, exspes, caede cruenta sua ! haec ego, coniugio fraudata Thoantias oro.

vivite, devoto nuptaque virque toro !

VII Dido Aeneae

Sic ubi fata vocant, udis abiectus in herbis

ad vada Maeandri concinit albus olor. Nee quia te nostra sperem prece posse moveri,

adloquor — adverso movimus ista deo ; sed merita et famam coi'pusque animumque

pudicum 5

cum male perdiderim, perdere verba leve est. Certus es ire tamen miseramque relinquere Didon,

atque idem venti vela fidemque ferent ? certus es, Aenea, cum foedere solvere naves,

quaeque ubi sint nescis, Itala regna sequi ? 10

nee nova Carthago, nee te crescentia tangunt

moenia nee sceptro tradita summa tuo ? facta fugis, facienda petis ; quaerenda per orbem

altei*a, quaesita est altera terra tibi.

a The song preceding death.

* Ovid has the fourth book of the Aeneid in mind as he composes this letter.

82

THE HER01DES VII

refuge by the sea or by the land, let her make trial of the air; let her wander, destitute, bereft of hope, stained red with the blood of her murders ! This fate do I, the daughter of Thoas, cheated of my wedded state, in prayer call down upon you. Live on, a wife and husband;, accursed in your bed !

VII

Dido to Aeneas

Thus, at the summons of fate, casting himself down amid the watery grasses by the shallows of Marauder, sings the white swan."

3 Not because I hope you may be moved by prayer of mine do I address you — for with God's will adverse I have begun the words you read ; but because, after wretched losing of desert, of reputa- tion, and of purity of body and soul, the losing of words is a matter slight indeed.

7 Are you resolved none the less to go, and to abandon wretched Dido,6 and shall the same winds bear away from me at once your sails and your promises ? Are you resolved, Aeneas, to break at the same time from your moorings and from your pledge, and to follow after the fleeting realms of Italy, which lie you know not where ? and does new- founded Cartilage not touch you, nor her rising walls. nor the sceptre of supreme power placed in your hand? What is achieved, you turn your back upon; what is to be achieved, you ever pursue. One land has been sought and gained, and ever must another be sought, through the wide world.

»3

OVID

ut terram invenias, quis earn tibi tradet haben-

dam ? 15

quis sua non notis arva tenenda dabit ? alter habendus amor tibi restat et altera Dido ; l

quamque iteruni fallas altera danda fides, quando erit, ut condas instar Carthaginis urbem

et videas populos altus ab arce tuos ? 20

omnia ut eveniant, nee te tua vota morentur,

unde tibi, quae te sic amet, uxor erit ? Uror, ut inducto ceratae sulpure taedae,

ut pia fumosis addita tura focis.'2 Aeneas oculis semper vigilantis inhaeret ; 25

Aenean animo noxque diesque refert. ille quidem male gratus et ad mea munera surdus,

et quo, si non sim stulta, carere velim ; non tamen Aenean, quamvis male cogitat, odi,

sed queror infidum questaque peius amo. 30

parce, Venus, nurui, durumque amplectere fratrem,

frater Amor, castris militet ille tuis ! aut ego, quern3 coepi — neque enim dediguor — amare,

materiam curae praebeat ille meae ! Fallor, et ista mihi falso iactatur imago ; 35

matris ab ingenio dissidet ille suae, te lapis et montes innataque rupibus altis

robora, te saevae progenuere ferae,

1 So s Burm.: alter amor tibi est habendus et P : a. a. t. et exstat habendus G E s : a. a. tibi restat ? habendast altera Dido ? Birt Ehw.

2 vv. 24, 25 defended I>y Hous., condemned by Pa. Ehw.

3 quern o> early editions : quae P 0 E s Plan.

84

THE HEROIDES VII

Yet, even should you find the land of your desire, who will give it over to you for your own ? Who will deliver his fields to unknown hands to keep ? A second love remains for you to win, and a second Dido ; a second pledge to give, and a second time to prove false. When will it be your fortune, think you, to found a city like to Carthage, and from the citadel on high to look down upon peoples of your own ? Should your every wish be granted, even should you meet with no delay in the answering of vour pravers, whence will come the wife to love you "as I ?

23 I am all ablaze with love, like torches of wax tipped with sulphur, like pious incense placed on smoking altar-fires. Aeneas my eyes cling to through all my waking hours ; Aeneas is in my heart through the night and through the day. "lis true he is an ingrate, and unresponsive to my kindnesses, and were 1 not fond I should be willing to have him go; yet, however ill his thought of me, I hate him not, but only complain of his faithlessness, and when I have complained I do but love more madly still. Spare, O Venus, the bride of thy son ; lay hold of thy hard-hearted brother, O brother Love, and make him to serve in thv camp ! Or make him to whom I have let my love go forth — I fust, and with never shame for it — yield me himself, the object ot my care !

35 Ah, vain delusion ! the fancy that Hits before my mind is not the truth; far different his heart from his mother's. Of rocks and mountains were you be- gotten, and of the oak sprung from the lofty cliff, of savage wild beasts, or of the sea — such a sea aseven now

85

OVID

aut mare, quale vides agitari nunc quoque ventis,

quo tamen adversis fluetibus ire paras. 40

quo fugis ? obstat hiemps. hiemis mihi gratia prosit .

adspiee, ut eversas concitet Eurus aquas ! quod tibi malueram, sine me debere procellis ;

iustior est animo ventus et unda tuo. Non ego sum tanti — quid non censeris inique ? — 45

ut pereas, dum me per freta longa fugis. exerees pretiosa odia et eonstantia magno,

si, dum me careas, est tibi vile mori. iam venti ponent, strataque aequaliter unda

caeruleis Triton per mare curret equis. 50

tu quoque cum ventis utinam mutabilis esses !

et, nisi duritia robora vincis, eris. quid, si nescires, insana quid aequora possunt ?

expertae totiens quam x male eredis aquae ! ut, pelago suadente etiam, retinaeula solvas, 55

multa tamen latus tristia pontus habet. nee violasse fidem temptantibus aequora prodest ;

perfidiae poenas exigit ille locus, praecipue cum laesus amor, quia mater Amorum

nuda Cytheriacis edita fertur aquis. 60

Perdita ne perdam, timeo, noceamve nocenti,

neu bibat aequoreas naufragus hostis aquas, vive, precor ! sic te melius quam funere perdam.

tu potius leti causa ferere mei. 1 quam s Merle. 86

THE HEROIDES VII

you look upon, tossed by the winds, on which you art' none the less making readyto sail, despite the threaten ing floods. Whither are you flying? The tempesl

rises to stay you. Let the tempest he my grace! 1 k

you, how Eurus tosses the rolling waters ] What I had preferred to owe to you, let me owe to the stormy blasts ; wind and wave are juster than your heart.

45 I am not worth enough — ah. why do I not wrongly rate you? — to have you perish flying from me over the long seas. 'Tis a costly and a dear- bought hate that you indulge if, to be quit of me, you account it cheap to die. Soon the winds will fall, and o'er the smooth-spread waves will Triton course with cerulean steeds. O that you too were changeable with the winds ! — and, unless in hard- ness you exceed the oak, you will be so. What could you worse, if you did not know of the power of raging seas? How ill to trust the wave whose might you have so often felt! Even should you loose your cables at the persuasion of calm seas, there are none the less many woes to be met on the vasty deep. Nor is it well for those who have broken faith to tempt the billows. Von is the place that exacts the penalty for faithlessness, above all when 'tis love has been wronged; for 'twas from the sea, in Cytherean waters, so runs the talc.th.it the mother of the Loves, undraped, arose.

61 Undone myself, I fear lest 1 be the undoing of him who is my undoing, lest I bring harm to him who brings harm to me, lest my enemy !>• wrecked at sea and drink the waters of the deep. O live; 1 pray it! Thus shall I see you worse undone than by death. You shall rather he reputed the cause of my own doom. Imagine, pray, imagine

8?

OVID

finge, age, te rapid o — nullum sit in amine

pond us ! — 65

turbine deprendi ; quid tibi mentis erit ? protinus oecurrent falsae periuria linguae,

et Phrygia Dido fraude coacta mori ; coniugis ante oculos deceptae stabit imago

tristis et effusis sanguinolenta comis. 70

quid tanti est ut turn " merui ! concedite ! " dicas,

quaeque eadent, in te fulmina missa putes ? Da breve saevitiae spatium pelagique tuaeque ;

grande morae pretium tuta futura via est. nee mihi tu curae ; puero parcatur Iulo ! 75

te satis est tituluin mortis habere meae. quid puer Ascanius, quid di meruere T Penates ?

ignibus ereptos obruet unda deos ? sed neque fers tecum, nee, quae mihi, perfide, iactas,

presserunt umeros sacra paterque tuos. 80

omnia mentiris, neque enim tua fallere lingua

incipit a nobis, primaque plector ego. si quaeras, ubi sit formosi mater Iuli —

occidit a duro sola relicta viro ! haec mihi narraras — sat me monuere ! 2 merentem 85

ure ; minor culpa poena futura mea est. Nee mihi mens dubia est, quin te tua numina damnent.

per mare, per terras septima iactat hiemps.

1 So G w wig. : quid meruere P : quid commeruere Pa. - at me novere Eod: at me movere Merk. Pa.: di me monuere Madv.: sat me monuere Hows.

" Another name for Ascanius, the sou of Aeneas.

8S

THE HEROIDKS VII

that you are caught — may there be nothing in the

omen ! — in the sweeping of the storm; what will be your thoughts ? Straight will come rushing to pour mind the perjury of your false tongue, and Dido driven to death by Phrygian faithlessness : before your eyes will appear the features of your deceived wife, heavy with sorrow, with hair streaming, and stained with blood. What now can you gain to recompense you then, when you will have to say : " 'Tis my desert ; forgive nie. ye gods!" when you will have to think that whatever thunderbolts fall were hurled at you ?

73 Grant a short space for the cruelty of tin sea, and for your own, to subside; your safe voyage will be great reward for waiting. Nor is it

vou for whom I am anxious; only let the little lulus" be spared! For you. enough to have the credit for my death. What has little Aseanius done/ or what your Penates, to deserve ill fate? Have they been rescued from fire but to be over- whelmed by the wave? Yet neither are you bearing them with you; the sacred relics which arc your pretext never rested on your shoulders, nor did your father. You are false in everything— and I am not the first your tongue has deceived, nor am I the first to feel the blow from you. Do you ask where the mother of pretty lulus is? — she perished, left behind by her unfeeling lord! This was tin- story you told me- yes. and it was warning enough for me! Burn me; I deserve it! The punishment will be less than befits my fault.

87 And my mind doubts not that you, too. arc under condemnation of your gods. Over sea :ind over land you are now for the seventh winter being

So

OVID

fluctibus eiectum tuta statione recepi

vixque bene audito nomine regna dedi. 90

his tamen offieiis utinam contenta fuissem,

et mihi eoncubitus fama sepulta foret ! ilia dies nocuit, qua nos declive sub antrum

caeruleus subitis eonpulit imber aquis. audieram vocem ; nymphas ululasse putavi — 95

Eumenides fatis signa dedere meis! Exige, laese pudor, poenas ! violate Syehaei 1 . . . .

ad quas, me miseram, plena pudoris eo. est mihi marmorea sacratus in aede Sychaeus —

oppositae frondes velleraque alba tegunt. 100

hinc ego me sensi noto quater ore eitari ;

ipse sono tenui dixit " Elissa, veni! " Nulla mora est, venio, venio tibi debita coniunx ;

sum tamen admissi tarda pudore mei. da veniam culpae ! deeepit idoneus auctor ; 105

invidiam noxae detrahit ille meae. diva parens seniorque pater, pia sarcina nati,

spem mihi mansuri rite dedere viri.2 si fuit errandum, eausas habet error honestas ;

adde fidem, nulla parte pigendus erit. 110

Durat in extremum vitaeque novissima nostrae

prosequitur fati, qui fuit ante, tenor, occidit internas coniunx mactatus ad aras,

et seeleris tanti praemia frater habet ; 1 Lacuna. 2 tori G Merk.

a Dido's husband in Tyre.

9°

THE HEROIDES VII

tossed. You were cast ashore by the waves and I received you to a safe abiding-place ; scarce knowing your name, I gave to you my throne. Yet would I had been content with these kindnesses, and that the story of our union were buried ! That dreadful day was my ruin, when sudden downpour of rain from the deep-blue heaven drove us to shelter in the lofty grot. I had heard .a voice ; I thought it a cry of the nymphs — 'twas the Eu- menides sounding the signal for my doom !

97 Exact the penalty of me, O purity undone ! — the penalty due Sychaeus." To absolve it now I go — ah me, wretched that I am, and overcome with shame ! Standing in shrine of marble is an image of Sychaeus I hold sacred — in the midst of green fronds hung about, and fillets of white wool. From within it four times have I heard myself called by a voice well known; 'twas he himself crying in faintly sounding tone : " Elissa, come ! "

103 J de]ay n0 longer, I come ; I come thy bride, thine own by right ; I am late, but 'tis for shame of my fault confessed. Forgive me my offence ! He was worthy who caused my fall ; he draws from my sin its hatefulness. That his mother was divine and his aged father the burden of a loyal son gave hope he would remain my faithful husband. If 'twas my fate to err, my error had honourable cause ; so only he keep faith, I shall have no reason for regret.

111 The lot that was mine in days past still follows me in these last moments of life, and will pursue to the end. My husband fell in his blood before the altars in his very house, and my brother possesses tin fruits of the monstrous crime: myself am driven

OVID

exul agor cineresque viri patriamque relinquo, 115

et feror in duras hoste sequente vias. adplicor ignotis fratrique elapsa fretoque

quod tibi donavi, perfide. litus emo. urbem constitui lateque patentia fixi

moenia finitimis invidiosa locis. 120

bella tument ; bellis peregrina et femina temptor,

vixque rudis portas urbis et arma paro. mille procis plaeui, qui me coiere querentes

nescio quern thalamis praeposuisse suis. quid dubitas vinetam Gaetulo tradere Iarbae ? 125

praebuerim sceleri bracehia nostra tuo. est etiam frater, cuius manus inpia possit

respergi nostro, sparsa cruore viri. pone deos et quae tangendo sacra profanas !

non bene caelestis inpia dextra colit. 130

si tu eultor eras elapsis igne futurus,

paenitet elapsos ignibus esse deos. Forsitan et gravidam Didon. scelerate. relinquas,

parsque tui lateat corpore clausa meo. aecedet fatis niatris miserabilis infans. 135

et nondum nato l funeris auctor ens, cumque parente sua frater morietur Iuli,

poenaque conexos auferet una duos. ■' Sed iubet ire deus." vellem, vetuisset adire,

Puniea nee Teucris pressa fuisset humus ! 1-10

1 nato Hein.: nati Pa. 92

THE HEROIDKS VII

into exile, compelled to leave behind the ashes of my lord and the land of my birth. Over hard paths I fly, and my enemy pursues. I land on shores unknown ; escaped from my brother and the sea. 1 purchase the strand that I gave, perfidious man, to you. I establish a city, and lay about it the found ations of wide-reaching walls that stir the jealousy of neighbouring realms. Wars threaten ; bv wars, a stranger and a woman, I am assailed ; hardly can I rear rude gates to the city and make ready my defence. A thousand suitors cast fond eyes on me, and have joined in the complaint that I preferred the hand of some stranger love. Why do you not bind me forthwith, and give me over to Gaetulian Iarbas? I should submit my arms to your shameful act. There is my brother, too. whose impious hand could be sprinkled with my blood, as it is already sprinkled with my lord's. Lay down those gods and sacred things; your touch profanes them! It is not well for an impious right hand to worship the dwellers in the sky. If 'twas fated tor you to worship the gods that escaped the fires, the gods regret that they escaped the fires.

133 Perhaps, too, it is Dido soon to be mother, () evil-doer, whom you abandon now. and a part of your being lies hidden in myself. To the tale of the mother will be added that of the wretched babe, and you will be the cause of doom to your yel unborn child; with his own mother will lulus' brother die, and one fate will bear us both aw i\ together.

189 " Hut you are bid to go— by your god I ' Ah, would he had forbidden you to come : would Funic soil had never been pressed by Teiicrian

93

OVID

hoc duce nempe deo ventis agitaris iniquis

et teris in rapido tempora longa freto ? Pergama vix tanto tibi erant repetenda labore,

Hectore si vivo quanta fuere forent. non patrium Simoenta petis, sed Thybridas

undas — 145

nempe ut pervenias, quo cupis, hospes eris ; utque latet vitatque tuas abstrusa carinas,

vix tibi continget terra petita seni. Hos potius populos in dotem, ambage remissa,

accipe et advectas Pygmalionis opes. 150

Ilion in Tyriam transfer felicius urbeni

resque loco 1 regis sceptraque sacra tene ! si tibi mens avida est belli, si quaerit lulus,

unde suo partus Marte triumphus eat, quern superet, nequid desit, praebebimus hos-

tem ; 155

hie pacis leges, hie locus anna capit. tu modo, per matrem fraternaque tela, sagittas,

perque fugae comites, Dardana sacra, deos — sic superent, quoscumque tua de gente reportas,

Mars ferus et danmi sit modus ille tui, 160

Ascaniusque suos feliciter inpleat annos,

et senis Anchisae molliter ossa cubent ! — parce, precor, domui, quae se tibi tradit habendam !

quod crimen dicis praeter amasse meum ? non ego sum Phthias magnisque oriunda Mycenis, 165

nee steterunt in te virque paterque meus.

1 So Pa.: inque loco P2 over an erasure G E s : ianique locum Ehw. : etc.

" The home of Achilles.

94

THE HEROIDES VII

feet ! Is this, forthsooth, the god under whose guidance you are tossed about by unfriendly winds, and pass long years on the surging seas? 'Twould scarce require such toil to return again to Perga- muni, were Pergamum still what it was while Hector lived. 'Tis not the Simois of your fathers you seek, but the waves of Tiber — and yet, forsooth, should you arrive at the place you wish, you will be but a stranger; and the land of your quest so hides from your sight, so draws away from contact with your keels, that 'twill scarce be your lot to reach it in old age.

140 Cease, then, your wanderings ! Choose rather me, and with me my dowry — -these peoples of mine, and the wealth of Pygmalion I brought with me. Transfer your Ilion to the Tyrian town, and give it thus a happier lot; enjoy the kingly state, and the sceptre's right divine. If your soul is eager for war, if lulus must have field for martial prowess and the triumph, we shall find him foes to conquer, and naught shall lack ; here there is place for the laws of peace, here place, too, for arms. Do you only, by your mother I pray, and by the weapons of your brother, his arrows, and by the divine companions of your flight, the gods "I Dardanus — so may those rise above fate whom you are saving from out your race, so may that cruel war be the last of misfortunes to you, and so m i\ Ascanius fill happily out his years, and the hones of old Anchises rest in peace ! -do you only spare t hi- house which gives itself without condition into your hand. What can you charge me with but love? I am not of Phthia," nor sprung of great My> < nae, nor have I had a husband and a father who have

»5

OVID

si pudet uxoris, non nupta, sed hospita dicar ;

dum tua sit, Dido quidlibet esse feret. Nota mihi f reta sunt Afrum plangentia litus ;

temporibus certis dantque negantque viam. 170 cum dabit aura viam, praebebis earbasa ventis ;

nunc levis eiectam continet alga ratem. tempus ut observem, manda mihi ; serius ibis,

nee te, si cupies, ipsa manere sinam. et socii requiem poscunt, laniataque classis 175

postulat exiguas semirefecta moras ; pro meritis et siqua tibi debebimus ultra,1

pro spe coniugii tempora parva peto — dum freta mitescunt et amor, dum tempore et usu

fortiter edisco tristia posse pati. 180

Si minus, est animus nobis effundere vitam ;

in me erudelis non potes esse diu. adspicias utinarn, quae sit seribentis imago !

scribimus, et gremio Troicus ensis adest, perque genas lacrimae strictum labuntur in

ensem, 185

qui iam pro lacrimis sanguine tinetus erit. quam bene conveniunt fato tua munera nostro !

instruis inpensa nostra sepulcra brevi. nee mea nunc primum feriuntur pectora telo ;

ille locus saevi vulnus amoris habet. 190

Anna soror, soror Anna, meae male conscia culpae,

iam dabis in cineres ultima dona meos.

1 ultro P. 96

THE HEROIDES VII

stood against you. If you shame to have me your wife, let me not be called bride, but hostess ; so she be yours, Dido will endure to be what you will.

169 weii (]0 J know the seas that break upon African shores; they" have their times of granting and denying the way. When the breeze permits, you shall give your canvas to the gale; now the light seaweed detains your ship by the strand. Entrust me with the watching of the skies ; you " shall go later, and I myself, though you desire it, will not let you to stay. Your comrades, too, de- mand repose, and your shattered fleet, but half refitted, calls for a short delay ; by your past kind- nesses, and by that other debt I still, perhaps, shall owe you, by my hope of Wedlock, I ask for a little time — while the sea and my love grow calm, while through time and wont I learn the strength to endure my sorrows bravely.

181 If you yield not, my purpose is fixed to pour forth my life ; you can not be cruel to me for long. Could you but see now the face of her who writes these words ! I write, and the Trojan's blade is ready in my lap. Over my cheeks the tears roll, and fall upon the drawn steel— which soon shall be stained with blood instead of tears. How fitting is your gift in my hour of fate ! You furnish forth my death at a cost but slight. Nor does my heart now for the first time feel a weapon's thrust ; it already bears the wound of cruel love.

191 Anna my sister, my sister Anna, wretched sharer in the knowledge of my fault, soon shall you give to my ashes the last boon. Nor when I have

97

OVID

nee consumpta rogis inscribar Elissa Sychaei, hoc tamen in tumuli marmore carmen erit :

PRAEBUIT AENEAS ET CAUSAM MORTIS ET ENSEM : 195

IPSA SUA DIDO CONCIDIT USA MANU.

VIII

Hermione Oresti

1 Pyrrhus Achillides, animosus imagine patris, 3

inclusam contra iusque pitimque tenet, quod potui, renui, ne non invita tenerer ; 5

cetera femineae non valuere manus. " quid facis, Aeacide ? non sum sine vindice," dixi :

" haec tibi sub domino est, Pyrrhe, puella suo ! '' surdior ille freto clamantem nomen Orestis

traxit inornatis in sua tecta comis. 10

quid gravius capta Lacedaemone serva tulissem,

si raperet Graias barbara turba minis ? parcius Andromachen vexavit Achaia victrix,

cum Danaus Phrygias ureret ignis opes. At tu, cura mei si te pia tangit, Oreste, 15

inice non timidas in tua iura manus !

1 vv. 1, 2 spurious, hut given in Aid. Burm. : see note to V, title.

a A legal allusion : a vindex was one who undertook the defence of a person seized for debt.

* Andromache's son Astyanax was thrown from the walls

THE HEROIDES VIII

been consumed upon the pyre, shall my inscription read: elissa, wife of svchaeus ; yet there shall be on the marble of my tomb these lines :

From aeneas came the cause of heb death, and from him the blade j from thl hand 01 dido herself came the stroke by which sue fell.

VIII

Hermione to Orestes

Pyrrhus, Achilles' son, in self-will the image of his sire, holds me in durance against every law of earth and heaven. All that lay in my power I have done — I have refused consent to be held; farther than that my woman's hands could not avail. "What art thou doing, son of Aeacus ? I laek not one to take my part ! " a I cried. " This is a woman, I tell thee, Pyrrhus, who has a master of her own ! " Deafer to me than the sea as 1 shrieked out the name of Orestes, he dragged me with hair all disarrayed into his palace. What worse my lot had Lacedaemon been taken and I been made a slave, carried away by the barbarian rout with the daughters of Greece ? Less misused by the \ ictorious Aehaeans was Andromache herself, what time the Danaan fire consumed the wealth of Phrygia.'

15 But do you, if your heart is touched with any natural care for me, Orestes, lay claim to your right with •. no timid hand. What! should anyone

of Troy, and she became the prize of Pyrrhus (also oalled Neoptolemus). She was afterwards given l>\ bim i>> Helenus.

99

OVID

an siquis rapiat stabulis armenta reclusis,

arma feras,1 rapta coniuge lentus eris ? sit socer exemplo nuptae repetitor ademptae,

cui pia militiae causa puella fuit ! 20

si socer ignavus vidua stertisset in aula,

nupta foret Paridi mater, ut ante fuit. Nee tu mille rates sinuosaque vela pararis

nee numeros Danai militis — ipse veni ! sic quoque eram repetenda tamen, nee turpe

marito 25

aspera pro caro bella tulisse toro. quid, quod avus nobis idem Pelopeius Atreus,

et, si non esses vir mihi, frater eras, vir, precor, uxori, frater succurre sorori !

instant officio nomina bina tuo. 30

Me tibi Tyndareus, vita gravis auctor et annis,

tradidit ; arbitrium neptis habebat avus. at pater Aeacidae promiserat inscius acti ;

plus quoque, qui prior est ordine, posset 2 avus. cum tibi nubebam, nulli raea taeda nocebat ; 35

si iungar Pyrrho, tu mihi laesus eris. et pater ignoscet nostro Menelaus amori —

succubuit telis praepetis ipse dei. quern sibi permisit, genero concedet amorem ;

proderit exemplo mater amata suo. 40

tu mihi, quod matri pater est ; quas egerat olim

Dardanius partis advena, Pyrrhus agit.

1 feras P : feres s.

2 posset P G a : possit s and, early editions-, pollet Bent.

° Frater is often so used.

THE HEROIDES VIII

break open your pens and steal away your herds, would you resort to arms ? and when your wife is stolen away will you be slow to move? Let your father-in-law Menelaus be your example, he who demanded back the wife taken from him. and had in a woman righteous cause for war. Had he been spiritless, and drowsed in his deserted halls, my mother would still be wed to Paris, as she was before.

23 Yet make not ready a thousand ships with bellying sails, and hosts of Danaan soldiery — your- self come! Yet even thus 1 might well have been sought back, nor is it unseemly for a husband to have endured fierce combat for love of his marriage- bed. Remember, too, the same grandsire is ours, Atreus, Pelops' son, and, were you not husband to me, you would still be cousin." Husband. I entreat, succour your wife ; brother, your sister ! Both bonds press you on to your duty.

31 I was given to you by Tyndareus, weighty of counsel both for his lite and tor his years ; the grandsire was arbiter of the grandchild's fate. Hut my father, it might be said, had promised me to Aeacus' son, not knowing this; yet my grandsire, who is first in order, should also be first in power, When I was wed to you. my union broughl harm to none ; if I wed with Pyrrhus, I shall deal a wound to you. My father Menelaus, too. will pardon our love — he himself succumbed to the darts of the winged god. The love he allowed himself'. he will concede to his daughter's chosen ; m\ mother, loved by him. will aid with her precedent You are to me what my sire is to my mother, and the part which once the Dardanian stranger played. Pyrrhus now plays. Let him he endlessly proud

ioi

OVID

ille licet patriis sine fine superbiat actis ;

et tu, quae referas facta parentis, habes. Tantalides omnis ipsumque regebat Achillem. 45

hie pars militiae ; dux erat ille ducum. tu quoque habes proavum Pelopem Pelopisque paren- tem ;

si melius numeres, a love quintus eris. Nee virtute cares, arma invidiosa tulisti,

sed tibi — quid faceres ? — induit ilia pater.1 50

materia vellem fortis meliore fuisses ;

non lecta est operi, sed data causa tuo. hanc tamen inplesti ; iuguloque Aegisthus aperto

tecta cruentavit, quae pater ante tuus. increpat Aeacides laudemque in crimina vertit — 55

et tamen adspectus sustinet ille meos. rumpor, et ora mihi pariter cum mente tumescunt,

pectoraque inclusis ignibus usta dolent. Hermione coram quisquamne obiecit Oresti,

nee mihi sunt vires, nee ferus ensis adest ? 60

flere licet certe ; flendo defundimus iram,

perque sinum lacrimae fluminis instar eunt. has solas habeo semper semperque profundo ;

ument incultae fonte perenne genae. Num generis fato, quod nostros errat in annos, 65

Tantalides matres apta rapina sumus ?

1 So Hous. : Sed tu quid faceres ? others.

a Jupiter, Tantalus, Pelops, Atreus, Agamemnon, Orestes — really sixth.

6 During Agamemnon's absence, Aegisthus won Clytem- nestra's heart, and the two compassed the king's death. After seven jears of reigning, Aegisthus and Clytemnestra were slain by her son Orestes.

THE HEROiDES VII]

because of his father's deeds; you, t < »< » , hav< a sires

achievements of which to boast. The son of Tantalus was ruler over all, over Achilles himself. The one was but a part of the soldier hand; the other was chief of chiefs. You, too, have ancestors — Pelops, and the father of Pelops : should you care to count more closely, you could call yourself fifth from Jove.*1

49 Nor are you without your prowess. The arms you wielded were hateful — but what were you to do? — your father placed them in your hand. 1 could wish that fortune had given you more ex- cellent matter for courage ; but the cause that called forth your deed was not chosen — it was fixed. The call you none the less obeyed : and the pierced throat of Aegisthus stained with blood the dwelling your father's blood had reddened before.6 The son of Aeacus assails your name. and turns your praise to blame — and yet shrinks not before my gaze. I burst with anger, and my face swells with passion no less than my heart, and my breast burns with the pains of pent-up wrath. Has anyone in hearing of Hermione said aught against Orestes, and have 1 no strength, and no keen sword at hand ? I can weep, at least. In weeping I let pour forth my ire, and over my bosom course the tears like a flowing stream. These only I still have, and still do 1 let them gush; my cheeks are wet and unsightly from their never ending fount.

65 Can it be some fate has come upon our house and pursued it through the years even to my time, that we Tantalid women are ever victims ready to the ravisher's hand? I shall not rehearse the lying

OVID

non ego fluminei referam mendacia cygni

nee querar in plumis delituisse Iovem. qua duo porrectus longe freta distinet Isthmos,

veeta peregrinis Hippodamia rotis ; 1 70

Taenaris Idaeo trans aequora ab hospite rapta 73

Argolicas pro se vertit in arma manus. vix equidem memini, memini tamen. omnia luctus, 75

omnia sollieiti plena timoris erant ; flebat avus Phoebeque soiw fratresque gemelli,

orabat superos Leda suumque Iovem. ipsa ego, non longos etiamtunc scissa capillos,

elamabam : " sine me, me sine, mater, abis ? " 80 nam eoniunx aberat ! ne non Pelopeia credar,

ecce, Neoptolemo praeda parata fui ! Pelides utinam vitasset Apollinis areus !

damnaret nati facta proterva pater ; nee quondam placuit nee nunc placuisset Achilli 85

abducta viduum coniuge flere virum. quae mea caelestis iniuria fecit iniquos,

quodve mini miserae sidus obesse querar ? parva mea sine matre fui, pater arma ferebat,

et duo cum vivant, orba duobus eram. 90

non tibi blanditias primis, mea matei-, in annis

incerto dictas ore puella tub ; non ego captavi brevibus tua colla lacertis

nee gremio sedi sarcina grata tuo. non cultus tibi cura mei, nee pacta marito 95

intravi thalamos matre parante novos.

1 71, 72 spurious Pa :

Castori Amyelaeo et Amyclaeo Polluci reddita Mopsopia Taenaris urbe soror ;

a The story of Leda and the swan. b Pelops won her

in the race witli Oenomaus, her father, whose death he com- passed by tampering with Oenomaus' charioteer Myrtilus.

c Apollo directed the arrow of Paris which wounded Achilles in the heel, his only vulnerable part. 104

THE HEROIDES VIII

words of the swan upon the stream, nor complain of Jove disguised in plumage." Where the sea i^ sundered in two by tin- far-stretched Isthmus, Hippodamia h was borne away in the car of the stranger; she of Taenarus, stolen away across the seas by the stranger-guest from Ida, roused to arms in her behalf all the men of Argos. I scarcely remember, to be sure, yet remember I do. All was grief, everywhere anxiety and fear ; my grandsire wept, and my mother's sister Phoebe, and the twin brothers, and Leda fell to praying the gods above, and her own Jove. As for myself, tearing my locks, not yet long, I began to cry aloud : " Mother, will you go away, and will you leave me behind?" For her lord was gone. Lest J be thought none of Pelops" Hue. lo, I too have been left a ready prey for Neoptolemus !

83 Would that Peleus' son had escaped the how of Apollo !c The father would condemn the son for his wanton deed ; 'twas not of yore the pleasure "1 Achilles, nor would it be now his pleasure, to see a widowed husband weeping for his stolen wife. What wrong have I done that heaven's hosts are against me ? or what constellation shall I complain is hostile to my wretched self ? In my childhood I had no mother; my father was ever in the wars — though the two were not dead, I was reft of both. You were not near in my first years, 0 my mother, to receive the caressing prattle from the tripping tongue of the little girl : I never clasped about your neck the little arms that would not reach, and never sat, a burden sweet, upon your lap. I was not reared and cared for by your hand ; and when I was promised in wedlock I had no mother to make ready the new chamber for my coming. I wenl oul to

105

OVID

obvia prodieram reduci tibi — vera fatebor —

nee facies nobis nota parentis erat ! te tamen esse Helenen, quod eras pulcherrima, sensi ;

ipsa requirebas, quae tua nata foret ! 100

Pars haec una inihi, coniunx bene cessit Orestes ;

is quoque, ni pro se pugnat, ademptus erit. Pyrrhus habet captam reduce et victoreparente —

hoc munus ! nobis x diruta Troia dedit ! cum tamen altus equis Titan radiantibus instat, 105

perfruor infelix liberiore malo ; nox ubi me thalamis ululantem et acerba gementem

condidit in maesto procubuique toro, pro somno lacrimis oculi funguntur obortis,

quaque licet, fugio sicut ab hoste viro. 110

saepe malis stupeo rerumque oblita locique

ignara tetigi Scyria membra manu, utque nefas sensi, male corpora tacta relinquo

et mihi pollutas credor habere maims. saepe Neoptolemi pro nomine nomen Orestis 115

exit, et errorem vocis ut omen amo. Per genus infelix iuro generisque parentem,

qui freta, qui terras et sua regna quatit ; per patris ossa tui, patrui mihi, quae tibi debent,

quod se sub tumulo fortiter ulta iacent — 120

aut ego praemoriar primoque exstingiiar in aevo,

aut ego Tantalidae Tantalis uxor ero !

1 So G t Merh. Pa.-, et minus a nobis P : munus et hoe nobis s Plan.: munus et a! nobis Ehw.

THE HEROIDES VIII

meet you when you came back home — what I shall say is truth — and the face of my mo1 her was unknown to me! That you were Helen 1 none the less knew. because you were most beautiful : but you — you had to ask who your daughter was !

101 This one favour of fortune has been mine — to have Orestes for my wedded mate; but he. toOj will be taken from me if he does not fijdit for his own. Pyrrhus holds me captive, though my father is returned and a victor — this is the boon brought me by the downfall of Troy ! Yet my unhappy soul has the comfort, when Titan is urging aloft his radiant steeds, of being more free in its wretchedness ; bat when the dark of night has fallen and sent me to my chamber with wails and lamentation for my bitter lot. and I have stretched myself prostrate on my sorrowful bed, then springing tears, not slumber, is the service of mine eyes, and in every way I can I shrink from my mate as from a foe. Oft I am distraught with woe; I lose sense of where I am and what my fate, and with witless hand have touched the body of him of Scyrus ; but when I have waked to the awful act, I draw my hand from the base contact, and look upon it as defiled. Oft. instead of Neoptolemus the name of Orestes comes forth, and the mistaken word is a treasured omen.

117 By our unhappy line I swear, and by the parent of our line, he who shakes the seas, tin- land, and his own realms on high ; by the bones of your father, uncle to me, which owe it to you that bravely avenged they lie beneath their burial mound either I shall die before mv time and in myyouthful years be blotted out, or I, a Tantalid. shall hi- the wife of him sprung from Tantalus !

1 07

OVID

IX

Deianira Herculi

Gratulor Oechaliam titulis accedere nostris ;

victorem victae succubuisse queror. fama Pelasgiadas subito pervenit in urbes .

decolor et factis infitianda tuis, quern numquam Iuno seriesque inmensa laborum 5

fregerit, huic Iolen inposuisse iugum. hoc velit Eurystheus, velit hoc germana Tonantis,

laetaque sit vitae labe noverca tuae ; at non ille velit, cui nox — sic creditur — una

non tanta,1 ut tantus eonciperere, fuit. 10

Plus tibi quam Iuno, nocuit Venus : ilia premendo

sustulit, haec humili 2 sub pede colla tenet, respice vindicibus pacatum viribus orbem,

qua latam Nereus caerulus ambit liumura. se tibi paxterrae, tibi se tuta aequora debent ; 15

inplesti mentis solis utramque domum. quod te laturum est, caelum prius ipse tulisti ;

Hercule supposito sidera fulsit Atlans. quid nisi notitia est misero quaesita pudori,

si cumulus stupri facta priora notat ? 20

1 tanta s lahn Loers ran Lennep : tanti P G oo.

2 humilis PGw Bent. Ehir.

a The Trachiniae of Sophocles dramatizes the Deianira story, and Apollodorns contains it. See also Ovid, Metam. ix. 1-273. and Seneca, Hercules Oetae,us.

* Who imposed the twelve labours on Hercules at the instigation of Juno.

108

THE HEUOIDES IX

IX Deianika to Hercules

" I render thanks that Oechalia lias been added to the list of our honours; but that the victor lias yielded to the vanquished, I complain. The rumour has suddenly spread to all the Pelasgian cities — a rumour unseemly, to which your deeds should give the lie — that on the man whom Juno's unending series of labours has never crushed, on him Ink- has placed her yoke. This would please Eurystheus,'' and it would please the sister of the Thunderer; stepdame c that she is, she would gladly know of the stain upon your life; but 'twould give no joy t<> him for whom, so 'tis believed, a single night did not suffice for the begetting of one so great.

11 More than Juno, Venus has been your banc. The one, by crushing you down, has raised you up; the other has your neck beneath her humbling foot. Look but on the circle of the earth made peaceful by your protecting strength, wherever tin- blue waters of Nereus wind round the broad land. To you is owing peace upon the earth, to you safety on the seas; you haye filled with worthy deeds both abodes of the sun.rf The heaven thai is to bear you, yourself once bore ; Hercules bent to the load of the Stars when Atlas was their stay. What have you gained but to spread the knowledge of your wretched shame, if a final act of baseness blots your former deeds? Can it be you that men saj

•' Jupiter was the father of Hercules by Alcmene.

*' Farthest east and west

IO<)

OVID

tene ferunt geminos pressisse tenaciter angues,

cum tener in cunis iam love dignus eras ? coepisti melius quam desinis ; ultima primis

cedunt ; dissimiles hie vir et ille puer. quern non mille ferae, quern non Stheneleius hostis, 25

non potuit Iuno vincere, vincit amor. At bene nupta feror, quia nominer Herculis uxor,

sitque socer, rapidis qui tonat altus equis. quam male inaequales veniunt ad aratra iuvenci,

tarn premitur magno eoniuge nupta minor. 30

non honor est sed onus species laesura ferentis ;

siqua voles apte nubere, nube pari, vir mihi semper abest, et eoniuge notior hospes,

monstraque terribiles persequiturque feras. ipsa domo vidua votis operata pudicis 35

torqueoir, infesto ne vir ab hoste cadat ; inter serpentes aprosque avidosque leones

iactor et haesuros terna per ora canes, me pecudum fibrae simulacraque inania somni

omniaque arcana nocte petita movent. 40

aucupor infelix incertae murmura famae,

speque timor dubia spesque timore cadit. mater abest queriturque deo placuisse potenti,

nee pater Amphitiyon nee puer Hyllus adest ; arbiter Eurystheus irae Iunonis iniquae 45

sentitur nobis iraque longa deae. no

THE HEROIDES IX

clutched tight the serpents twain while a tender babe in the cradle, already worthy of Jove ? You began better than you end ; your last deeds yield to your first; the man you are and the child you were are not the same. He whom not a thousand wild beasts, whom not the Stheneleian toe. whom not Juno could overcome, love overcomes.

27 Yet I am said to be well mated, because I am called the wife of Hercules, and because the father of my lord is he who thunders on high with im- petuous steeds. As the ill-mated steer yoked miserably at the plough, so fares the wife who is less than her mighty lord. It is not honour, but mere fair-seeming, and brings dole to us who bear the .load; would you be wedded happily, wed your equal. My lord is ever absent from me — he is better known to me as guest than husband — ever pursuing monsters and dreadful beasts. 1 myself, at home and widowed, am busied with chaste prayers, in torment lest my husband fall by the savage foe; with serpents and with boars and ravening lions my imaginings are full, and with hounds three-throated hard upon the prey. The entrails of slain victims stir my fears, the idle images of dreams, and the omen sought in the mysterious night. Wretchedly I catch at the uncertain murmurs of the common talk; my 'fear is lost in wavering hope, mj hope again in fear. Your mother is away, and laments that she ever pleased the potent god. and neither your father Amphitryon is here, nor your son Hyllus; the acts of Eurystheus, the instrument of Juno's unjust wrath, and the long-eont iiui.il ang< r of the goddess — I am the one to feel.

i i l

OVID

Haec mihi ferre parum ? peregrinos addis amores,

et mater de te quaelibet esse potest, non ego Partheniis temeratam vallibus Augen,

nee referam partus, Ormeni nympha, tuos ; 50

non tibi crimen erunt, Teuthrantia turba, sorores,

quarum de populo nulla relieta tibi est. una, recens crimen, referetur adultera nobis,

unde ego sum Lydo facta noverca Lamo. Maeandros, terris totiens errator in isdem, 55

qui lassas in se saepe retorquet aquas, vidit in Herculeo suspensa monilia collo

illo, cui caelum sarcina parva fuit. non puduit fortis auro cohibere lacertos,

et solidis gemmas opposuisse toris ? 60

nempe sub his animam pestis Nemeaea lacertis

edidit, unde umerus tegmina laevus habet ! ausus es hirsutos mitra redimire capillos !

aptior Herculeae populus alba comae, nee te Maeonia lascivae more puellae 65

incingi zona dedecuisse pudet ? l non tibi succurrit crudi Diomedis imago,

efferus humana qui dape pavit equas ? si te vidisset cultu Busiris in isto,

huic victor victo 2 nempe pudendus eras. 70

detrahat Antaeus duro redimicula collo,

ne pigeat molli succubuisse viro. Inter Ioniacas calathum tenuisse puellas

diceris et dominae pertimuisse minas.

1 pudet P Gu> : putas s Burm. : putes Leidensis : patet Pa.

2 Hie /// victor victo P ; huic w : victori victo . . . erat Pa.

a There were fifty of them, and their father Thespius wished for fifty grandchildren by Hercules.

* Hercules was the lover of Omphale, or Iardanis (v. 103), queen of Lydia, sold to her by Hermes as a slave.

THE HEROIDES IX

47 Is this too little for me to endure ? You add to it your stranger loves, and whoever will may be by you a mother. I will say nothing of Aug'e betrayed in the vales of Parthenius, or of thy travail, nymph sprung of Ormenus ; nor will I charge against you the daughters of Teuthras' son, tin- throng of sisters from whose number none was spared by you." But there is one love — a fresh offence of which I have heard — a love by which I am made stepdame to Lydian Lamus.6 The Meander, so many times wandering in the same lands, who oft turns back upon themselves his wearied waters, has seen hanging from the neck of Hercules — the neck which found the heavens but slight burden — bejewelled chains ! Felt you no shame to bind with gold those strong arms, and to set the gem upon that solid brawn ? Ah, to think 'twas these arms that crushed the life from the Nemean pest, whose skin now covers your left side ! You have not shrunk from binding your shaggy hair with a woman's turban ! More meet for the locks of Hercules were the white poplar. And for you to disgrace yourself by wearing the Maeonian zone, like a wanton girl — feel you no shame for that ? Did there come to vour mind no image of savage Diomede, fiei'cely feeding his mares on human meat ? Had Busiris seen you in that garb, he whom you vanquished would surely have reddened for such a victor as you. Antaeus would tear from the hard neck the turban-bands, lest he feel shame at having succumbed to an unmanly foe.

73 They say that you have held the wool-basket among the girls of Ionia, and been Brightened al your mistress' threats. Do you not shrink, Aleides.

"3

OVID

non fugis, Alcide, victricem mille laborum 75

rasilibus calathis inposuisse manum, crassaque robusto deducis pollice fila,

aequaque formosae pensa rependis erae ? a, quotiens digitis dum torques stamina duris,

praevalidae fusos conminuere manus ! 80

ante pedes dominae 1 . . . .

factaque narrabas dissimulanda tibi — 84

scilicet inmanes elisis faucibus hydros 85

infantem caudis involuisse manum, ut Tegeaeus aper cupressifero Erymantho

incubet et vasto pondere laedat humum. non tibi Threiciis adfixa penatibus ora,

non hominum pingues caede tacentur equae ; 90 prodigiumque triplex, armenti dives Hiberi

Geryones, quamvis in tribus unus erat ; inque canes totidem trunco digestus ab uno

Cerberos inplicitis angue minante comis ; quaeque redundabat fecundo vulnere serpens 95

fertilis et damnis dives ab ipsa suis ; quique inter laevumque latus laevumque lacertum

praegrave conpressa fauce pependit onus ; et male confisum pedibus formaque bimembri

pulsum Thessalicis agmen equestre iugis. 100

Haec tu Sidonio potes insignitus amictu

dicere ? non cultu lingua retenta silet ? se quoque nympha tuis ornavit Iardanis armis

et tulit a capto nota tropaea viro.

1 81, half of 82, and 83, spurious, Merle. Pa.

crederis infelix scuticae tremefactus habenis

ante pedes dominae pertimuisse minas . . . eximias pompas, inmania eemina laudum.

114

THE HEROIDES IX

from laying to the polished wool-basket the hand that triumphed over a thousand toils ; do you draw oft with stalwart thumb the coarsely spun strands, and give back to the hand of a pretty mistress the just portion she weighed out ? Ah, how often, while with dour finger you twisted the thread, have your too strong hands crushed the spindle ! Before your mistress' feet .... and told of the deeds of which you should now say naught — of enormous serpents, throttled and coiling their lengths about your infant hand ; how the Tegeaean boar has his lair on cypress-bearing Erymanthus, and afflicts the ground with his vast weight. You do not omit the skulls nailed up in Thracian homes, nor the mares made fat with the flesh of slain men ; nor the triple prodigy. Geryones, rich in Iberian cattle, who was one in three ; nor Cerberus, branching from one trunk into a three-fold dog, his hair inwoven with the threatening snake ; nor the fertile serpent that sprang forth again from the fruitful wound, grown rich from her own hurt ; nor him whose mass hung heavy between your left side and left arm as your hand clutched his throat ; nor the equestrian array that put ill trust in their feet and dual form, confounded by you on the ridges of Thessaly.

101 These deeds can you recount, gaily arrayed in a Sidonian gown ? Does not your dress rob from your tongue all utterance? The nymph-daughter of Iardanus" has even tricked herself out in your arms, and won famous triumphs from the vanquished " Omphale.

"5

OVID

i nunc, tolle animos et fortia gesta recense ; 105

quo l tu non esses, iure vir ilia fait. qua tanto minor es, quanto te, maxime rerum,

quam quos vicisti, vincere maius erat. illi procedit rerum mensura tuarum —

cede bonis ; heres laudis arnica tuae. 110

o pudor ! hirsuti costis exuta leonis

aspera texerunt vellera molle latus ! falleris et nescis — non sunt spolia ilia leonis,

sed tua, tuque fieri victor es, ilia tui. femina tela tulit Lernaeis atra venenis, 115

ferre gravem lana vix satis apta colum, instruxitque manum clava domitrice ferarum,

vidit et in speculo coniugis arma sui ! Haec tamen audieram ; licuit non credere famae,

et venit ad sensus mollis ab aure dolor — 120

ante meos oculos adducitur advena paelex,

nee mihi, quae patior, dissimulare licet ! non sinis averti ; mediam captiva per urbem

invitis oculis adspicienda venit. nee venit incultis captarum more capillis, 125

fortunam vultu fassa decente 2 suam ; ingreditur late lato spectabilis auro,

qualiter in Phrygia tu quoque cultus eras, dat vultum populo sublimis ut 3 Hercule victo ;

Oechaliam vivo stare parente putes. 130

1 quo Pa. : quern P1 : quod P2 G u> : quom Madv.

2 So van Lennep : vultu fassa tegente P.

3 So early editions, Plan : sublime sub Hercule victo P G a>.

" Iole. n6

THE HEROIDES IX

hero. Go now, puff up your spirit and recount your brave deeds done ; she has proved herself a man by a right you could not urge. You are as much less than she, O greatest of men, as it was greater to vanquish you than those you vanquished. To her passes the full measure of your exploits — yield up what you possess ; your mistress is heir to your praise. O shame, that the rough skin stripped from the flanks of the shaggy lion has covered a woman's delicate side ! You are mistaken, and know it not — that spoil is not from the lion, but from you ; you are victor over the beast, but she over you. A woman has borne the darts blackened with the venom of Lerna, a woman scarce strong enough to carry the spindle heavy with wool ; a woman lias taken in her hand the club that overcame wild beasts, and in the mirror gazed upon the armour of her lord !

lly These things, however, I had only heard ; I could distrust men's words, and the pain hit on my senses softly, through the ear — but now my very eyes must look upon a stranger-mistress " led before them, nor may I now dissemble what I suffer ! You do not allow me to turn away ; the woman comes a captive through the city's midst, to be looked upon by my unwilling eyes. Nor comes she after the manner of captive women, with hair unkempt, and with becoming countenance that tells to all her lot ; she strides along, sightly from afar in plenteous gold, apparelled in such wise as you your- self in Phrygia. She looks straight out at the throng, with head held high, as if 'twere she had conquered Hercules ; you might think Oechalia standing yet, and her father yet alive. Perhaps you

"7

OVID

forsitan et pulsa Aetolide Deianira

nomine deposito paelicis uxor erit, Eurytidosque Ioles atque Aonii : Alcidae

turpia famosus corpora iunget Hymen, mens fugit admonitu, frigusque perambulat artus, 1 35

et iacet in gremio languida facta manus. Me quoque cum multis, sed me sine crimine amasti.

ne pigeat, pugnae bis tibi causa fui. cornua flens legit ripis Achelous in udis

truncaque limosa tempora mersit aqua; 140

semivir occubuit in lotifero Eueno 2

Nessus, et infecit sanguis equinus aquas, sed quid ego haec refero ? scribenti nuntia venit

fama, virum tunicae tabe perire meae. ei mihi ! quid feci ? quo me furor egit aman-

tem? 145

inpia quid dubitas Deianira mori*1 An tuus in media coniunx lacerabitur Oeta,

tu sceleris tanti causa superstes eris ? siquid adhue habeo facti, cur Herculis uxor

credar, coniugii mors mea pignus erit ! 1 50

tu quoque cognosces in me, Meleagre, sororem !

inpia quid dubitas Deianira mori ? Heu devota domus ! solio sedet Agrios alto ;

Oenea desertum nuda senecta premit. exulat ignotis Tydeus germanus in oris ; 155

alter fatali vivus in igne fuit ;

1 atque Aonii Bent. Merit. : et insanii P : insani G.

2 lotifero Bent.: Eueno Hein.: letiferoque veneno G : in lorifero eueneno Gue/f. 3 : in letifero Eueno Hein. Burnt, etc.

a His poisoned blood is in the robe she sends to Hercules.

* Agrius drove out Oeneus his brother after Meleager's death.

c By Oeneus, for slaying a brother.

d Meleager perished when his mother Althea, in revenge n8

THE HEROIDES IX

will even drive away Aetolian Deianira, and her rival will lay aside the name of mistress, and be made your wife. Iole, the daughter of Eurytus, and Aonian Alcides will be basely joined in shameful bonds of Hymen. My mind fails me at the thought, a chill sweeps through my frame, and my hand lies nerveless in my lap.

187 Me, too, you have possessed among vour many loves — but me with no reproach. Regret it not — twice you have fought for the sake of me. In tears Achelous gathered up his horns on the wet banks of his stream, and bathed in its clayey tide his mutilated brow ; the half-man Nessus sank down in lotus- bearing Euenus, tingeing its waters with his equine blood.0 But why am I reciting things like these ? Even as I write comes rumour to me saying my lord is dying of the poison from my cloak. Alas me ! what have I done ? Whither has madness driven me in my love ? O wicked Deianira, why hesitate to die ?

147 Shall thy lord be torn to death on midmost Oeta, and shalt thou, the cause of the monstrous deed, remain alive ? If I have yet done aught to win the name of wife of Hercules, my death shall be the pledge of our union. Thou, Mel eager, shalt also see in me a sister of thine own ! O wicked Deianira. why hesitate to die ?

153 Alas, for my devoted house ! Agrius sits on the lofty throne ; b Oeneus is reft of all, and barren old age weighs heavy on him. Tydeus my brother is exiled on an unknown shore ;c my second brother's life hung on the fateful fire ; d our mother

for his slaying her brother, finally burned the brand on whose preservation the Fates had said his life depended.

119

OVID

exegit ferrum sua per praecordia mater.

inpia quid dubitas Deianira mori ? Deprecor hoc unum per iura sacerrima lecti,

ne videar fatis insidiata tuis. 160

Nessus, ut est avidum percussus harundine pectus,

" hie/' dixit, "vires sanguis amoris habet." inlita Nesseo misi tibi texta veneno.

inpia quid dubitas Deianira mori ? Iamque vale, seniorque pater germanaque Gorge, 165

et patria et patriae frater adempte tuae, et tu lux oculis hodierna novissima nostris,

virque — sed o possis ! — et puer Hylle, vale !

X

Ariadne Theseo

Minus inveni quam te genus omne ferarum ;

credita non ulli quam tibi peius eram. quae legis, ex illo, Theseu, tibi litore mitto

unde tuam sine me vela tulere ratem, in quo me somnusque meus male prodidit et tu, 5

per facinus somnis insidiate meis. Tempus erat, vitrea quo primum terra pruina

spargitur et tectae fronde queruntur aves. incertum vigilans a somno languida movi

Thesea prensuras semisupina manus — 10

120

THE HEROIDES X

drove the steel through her own heart. O wicked Deianira, why hesitate to die ?

159 This one thing I deprecate, by the most sacred bonds of our marriage-bed — that I seem to have plotted for your doom. Nessus, stricken with the arrow in his lustful heart, "This blood,'' he said, " has power over love." The robe of Nessus, saturate with poisonous gore, I sent to you. () wicked Deianira, why hesitate to die ?

165 And now, fare ye well, O aged father, and O my sister Gorge, and O my native soil, and brother taken from thy native soil, and thou, O light that shinest to-day, the last to strike upon mine eves ; and thou my lord, O fare thou well — would that thou couldst ! — and Hyllus, thou mv son, farewell to thee !

X

Ariadne to Theseus

Gentler than you I have found every race of wild beasts ; to none of them could I so ill have trusted as to you. The words you now are reading, Theseus, I send you from that shore from which the sails bore off your ship without me, the shore on which my slumber, and you, so wretchedly betrayed me — you, who wickedly plotted against me as I slept.

7 'Twas the time when the earth is first be- sprinkled with crystal rime, and songsters hid in the branch begin their plaint. Half waking only, languid from sleep, I turned upon my side and put forth hands to clasp my Theseus — he was not

i j l

OVID

nullus erat ! referoque manus iterumque retempto,

pei-que torum moveo bracchia — rmllus erat ! excussere metus somnum ; contei'rita surgo,

membraque sunt viduo praecipitata toro. protinus adductis sonuerunt pectora palmis, 15

utque erat e somno turbida, rapta coma est. Luna i'uit ; specto, siquid nisi litora cernam.

quod videant oculi, nil nisi litus habent. nunc hue, nunc illuc, et utroque sine ordine, curro ;

alta puellares tardat harena pedes. 20

interea toto clamanti l litore " Theseu ! "

reddebant nomen concava saxa tuum, et quotiens ego te, totiens locus ipse vocabat.

ipse locus miserae ferre volebat opem. Mons fuit — apparent frutices in vertice rari ; 25

hinc 2 scopulus raucis pendet adesus aquis. adscendo — vires animus dabat — atque ita late

aequora prospectu metior alta meo. inde ego — nam ventis quoque sum crudelibus usa —

vidi praecipiti carbasa tenta Noto. 30

ut vidi haut dignam 3 quae me vidisse putarein,

frigidior glacie semianimisque fui. nee languere diu patitur dolor ; excitor illo,

excitor et summa Thesea voce voco. "quo fugis ? " exclamo ; " scelerate revertere Theseu ! 35

flecte ratem ! numerum non habet ilia suum ! "

1 clamanti s Plan.: clamati//// P : clamanti in G: clamavi V s Bent. : clamavi in Ehw.

2 hinc G Burm.: nunc P V : hie, huic s.

3 So Hous.: aut vidi a///uam quae me P : aut vidi aut tamquam quae me G.

THE HEROIDRS X

there ! I drew back my hands, a second time I made essay, and o'er the whole couch moved my arms — he was not there ! Fear struck away my sleep ; in terror I arose, and threw myself headlong from my abandoned bed. Straight then my palms resounded upon my breasts, and I tore my hair, all disarrayed as it was from sleep.

17 The moon was shining ; I bend my gaze to see if aught but shore lies there. So far as my eyes can see, naught do they find but shore. Now this way, and now that, and ever without plan, I course ; the deep sand stays my girlish feet. And all the while I cried out "Theseus! " along the entire shore, and the hollow rocks sent back your name to me ; as often as I called out for you, so often did the place itself call out your name. The very place felt the will to aid me in my woe.

25 There was a mountain, with bushes rising here and there upon its top ; a cliff hangs over from it, gnawed into by deep-sounding waves. I climb its slope — my spirit gave me strength — and thus with prospect broad I scan the billowy deep. From there — for I found the winds cruel, too — I beheld your sails stretched full by the headlong southern gale. As I looked on a sight methought I had not deserved to see, I grew colder than ice, and life half left my body. Nor does anguish allow me long to lie thus quiet ; it rouses me, it stirs me up to call on Theseus with all my voice's might. " Whither dost fly?" I cry aloud. "Come back. () wicked Theseus! Turn about thy ship! She hath not all her crew ! "

I23

OVID

Haec ego ; quod voci deerat, plangore replebam ;

verbera cum verbis mixta fuere meis. si non audires, ut saltern cernere posses,

iactatae late signa dedere manus ; 40

candidaque inposui longae velamina virgae —

scilicet oblitos admonitura mei ! iamque oculis ereptus eras, turn denique flevi ;

torpuerant molles ante dolore genae. quid potius facerent, quarmme mea lumina flerent, 45

postquam desieram l vela videre tua ? aut ego diffusis erravi sola capillis,

qualis ab Ogygio concita Baccha deo, aut mare prospiciens in saxo frigida sedi,

quamque lapis sedes, tarn lapis ipsa fui. 50

saepe torum repeto, qui nos acceperat ambos,

sed non acceptos exhibiturus erat, et tua, quae possum pro te, vestigia tango

strataque quae membris intepuere tuis. incumbo, lacrimisque toi'o manante profusis, 55

" pressimus," exclamo, " te duo — redde duos! venimus hue ainbo ; cur non discedimus ambo ?

perfide, pars nostri, lectule, maior ubi est? " Quid faciam ? quo sola ferar ? vacat insula cultu.

non hominum video, non ego facta bourn. 60

orane latus terrae cingit mare ; navita nusquam,

nulla per ambiguas puppis itura vias. finge dari comitesque mihi ventosque ratemque —

quid sequar ? accessus terra pate ma negat. 1 desieram Pw : desierant s Plan.: desierat G. 124

THE HEROIDES X

37 Thus did I cry, and what my voice could not avail, I filled with beating of my breast ; the blows I gave myself were mingled with my words. That you at least might see, it' you could not hear, with might and main I sent you signals with my hands ; and upon a long tree-branch I fixed my shining veil — yes, to put in mind of me those who had forgotten ! And now you had been swept beyond my vision. Then at last I let flow my tears ; till then my tender eyeballs had been dulled with pain. What better could my eyes do than weep for me, when I had ceased to see your sails ? Alone, with hair loose flying, I have either roamed about, like to a Bacchant roused by the Ogygian god, or, looking out upon the sea, I have sat all chilled upon the rock, as much a stone myself as was the stone I sat upon. Oft do I come again to the couch that once received us both, but was fated never to show us together again, and touch the imprint left by you — 'tis all 1 can in place of you ! — and the stuffs that once grew warm beneath your limbs. 1 lay me down upon my face, bedew the bed with pouring tears, and cry aloud : " We were two who pressed thee — give back two ! We came to thee both together; why do we not depart the same ? Ah, faithless bed— the greater part of my being, oh, where is he ?

59 What am I to do ? Whither shall 1 take myself — I am alone, and the isle unfilled. Of human traces I see none ; of cattle, none. On every side the land is girt by sea; nowhere a sailor, no craft to make its way over the dubious paths. And suppose I did find those to g<> \\ith me, and winds, and ship — yet where am I to go :

125

OVID

ut rate felici pacata per aequora labar, 65

temperet ut ventos Aeolus — exul ero ! non ego te, Crete centum digesta per urbes,

adspiciam, puero cognita terra Iovi ! at pater et tellus iusto regnata parenti

prodita sunt facto, nomina cara, meo, 70

cum tibi, ne victor tecto morerere recurvo,

quae regerent passus, pro duce fila dedi, cum mihi dicebas : " per ego ipsa pericula iuro,

te fore, dum nostrum vivet uterque, meam." Vivimus, et non sum, Theseu, tua — si modo vivit 75

femina periuri fraude sepulta viri. me quoque, qua fratrem, mactasses, inprobe, clava ;

esset, quam dederas, morte soluta fides, nunc ego non tantum, quae sum passura, recordor,

sed quaecumque potest ulla relicta pati. 80

occurrunt animo pereundi mille figurae,

morsque minus poenae quam mora mortis habet. iam iam venturos aut hac aut suspicor iliac,

qui lanient avido viscera dente, lupos. quis scit an et * fulvos tellus alat ista leones ? 85

forsitan et saevas tigridas insula habet.2 et freta dicuntur magnas expellere phocas !

quis vetat et gladios per latus ire meum ? Tantum ne religer dura captiva catena,

neve traham serva grandia pensa manu, 90

1 Quis scit an made to change place* with forsitan et, for the sake of syntax Hous.

2 saevas tigridas insula habet G : trigides insula habent P : et saevam tigrida Dia f erat editor of E.

a Her aid to Theseus in his slaying of the Minotaur her brother, and his escape from the Labyrinth.

126

THE HEROIDES X

My father's realm forbids me to approach. Grant I do glide with fortunate keel over peaceful seas, that Aeolus tempers the winds — I still shall be an exile! 'Tis not for me, O Crete composed of the hundred cities, to look upon thee, land known to the infant Jove ! No, for my father and the land ruled by my righteous father — dear names ! — were betrayed by my deed a when, to keep you, after your victory, from death in the winding halls, I gave into your hand the thread to direct your steps in place of guide — when you said to me : "By these very perils of mine, I swear that, so long as both of us shall live, thou shalt be mine ! "

75 We both live, Theseus, and I am not yours ! — if indeed a woman lives who is buried by the treason of a perjured mate. Me, too, you should have slain, O false one, with the same bludgeon that slew my brother ; then would the oath you gave me have been absolved by my death. Now, I ponder over not only what I am doomed to suffer, but all that any woman left behind can suffer. There rush into my thought a thousand forms of perishing, and death holds less of dole for me than the delay of death. Each moment, now here, now there, I look to see wolves rush on me, to rend my vitals with their greedy fangs. Who knows but that this shore breeds, too, the tawny lion ? Perchance the island harbours the savage tiger as well. They say, too, that the waters of the deep cast up the mighty seal ! And who is to keep the swords of men from piercing my side ?

89 But I care not, if I am but not left captive in hard bonds, and not compelled to spin the long task with servile hand — I, whose father is

i 27

OVID

cui pater est Minos, eui mater filia Phoebi,

quodque magis memini, quae tibi pacta fui ! si mare, si terras porrectaque litora vidi,

multa mihi terrae, multa minantur aquae, caelum restabat— timeo simulacra deorum ! 95

destituor rapidis praeda cibusque feris ; sive colunt habitantque viri, diffidimus illis —

externos didici laesa timere viros. Viveret Androgeos utinam ! nee facta luisses

inpia funeribus, Cecropi terra, tuis ; 100

nee tua mactasset nodoso stipite, Theseu,

ardua parte virum dextera, parte bovem ; nee tibi, quae reditus monstrarent, fila dedissem,

fila per adductas saepe recepta manus. non equidem miror, si stat victoria tecum, 105

strataque Cretaeam belua planxit1 humum. non poterant figi praecordia ferrea cornu ;

ut te non tegeres, pectore tutus eras, illic tu silices, illic adamanta tulisti,

illic qui silices, Thesea, vincat, habes. 110

Crudeles somni, quid me tenuistis inertem ?

aut semel aeterna nocte premenda fui. vos quoque crudeles, venti, nimiumque parati

flaminaque in lacrimas officiosa meas. dextera crudelis, quae me fratremque necavit, 115

et data poscenti, nomen inane, fides !

1 planxit Bent.: stravit PG2 Plan.: texit G, Merk.' pressit s Sedl. : tinxit o> Burm,

a Androgeos, Ariadne's brother, was accidentally killed at Athens.

128

THE HERO IDES X

Minos, whose mother the child of Phoebus, and who — what memory holds more close — was promised bride to you ! When I have looked on the sea, and on the land, and on the wide-stretehing shore, I know many dangers threaten me on land, and many on the waters. The sky remains — yet there I fear visions of the gods ! I am left helpless, a prey to the maws of ravening beasts ; and if men dwell in the place and keep it, I put no trust in them — my hurts have taught me fear of stranger-men.

99 O, that Androgeos were still alive, and that thou, O Cecropian land, hadst not been made to atone for thy impious deeds with the doom of thy children ! " and would that thy upraised right hand, O Theseus, had not slain with knotty club him that was man in part, and in part bull ; and I had not given thee the thread to show the way of thy return — thread oft caught up again and passed through the hands led on by it. 1 marvel not — ah, no! — if victory was thine, and the monster smote with his length the Cretan earth. His horn could not have pierced that iron heart of thine: thy breast was safe, even didst thou naught to shield thy- self. There barest thou flint, there barest thou adamant; there hast thou a Theseus harder than any flint !

111 Ah, cruel slumbers, why did you hold me thus inert? Or, better had I been weighed down once for all by everlasting night. You, too, were cruel, O winds, and all too well prepared, and you breezes, eager to start my tears. Cruel the right hand that has brought me and my brother to our death, and cruel the pledge an empty word that you gave at my demand ! Against me conspiring

i 29

K

OVID

in me iurarunt somnus ventusque fidesque ;

prodita sum causis una puella tribus ! Ergo ego nee lacrimas matris moritura videbo,

nee, mea qui digitis lumina condat, erit? 120

spiritus infelix peregrinas ibit in auras,

nee positos artus unguet arnica manus ? ossa superstabunt volucres inhumata marinae ?

haec sunt officiis digna sepulcra meis ? ibis Cecropios portus patriaque reeeptus, 125

cum steteris turbae x celsus in ore 2 tuae et bene narraris letum taurique virique

sectaque per dubias saxea tecta vias, me quoque narrato sola tellure relictam !

non ego sum titulis subripienda tuis. 130

nee pater est Aegeus, nee tu Pittheidos Aethrae

Alius ; auctores saxa fretumque tui ! 3 Di facerent, ut me sumraa de puppe videres ;

movisset vultus maesta figura tuos ! nunc quoque non oculis, sed, qua potes, adspice mente 135

haerentem scopulo, quern vaga pulsat aqua, adspice demissos lugentis more capillos

et tunicas lacrimis sicut ab imbre gravis, corpus, ut inpulsae segetes aquilonibus, horret,

litteraque articulo pressa tremente labat. 140

non te per meritum, quoniam male cessit, adoro ;

debita sit facto gratia nulla meo. sed ne poena quidem ! si non ego causa salutis,

non tamen est, cur sis tu mihi causa necis.

1 turbae G u> : turbes P3 : urbis P2s : urbes Pv

2 in ore G1 Jahn Merk. Ehw. : in aure Pi : in arce P2 V s : urbis . . . arce Pa.

3 vv. 131, 132 after 110 Birt Ehw.

130

THE HEROIDES X

were slumber, wind, and treacherous pledge — treason three-fold against one maid !

119 Am I, then, to die, and, dying, not behold my mother's tears ; and shall there be no one's finger to close my eyes ? Is my unhappy soul to go forth into stranger-air, and no friendly hand compose my limbs and drop on them the unguent due ? Are my bones to lie unburied, the prey of hovering birds of the shore ? Is this the entombment due to me for my kindnesses? You will go to the haven of Cecrops ; but when you have been received back home, and have stood in pride before your throng- ing followers, gloriously telling the death of the man-and-bull, and of the halls of rock cut out in winding ways, tell, too, of me, abandoned on a solitary shore — for I must not be stolen from the record of your honours ! Neither is Aegeus your father, nor are you the son of Pittheus' daughter Aethra ; they who begot you were the rocks and the deep !

133 Ah, I could pray the gods that you had seen me from the high stern ; my sad figure had moved your heart ! Yet look upon me now — not with eyes, for with them you cannot, but with your mind — clinging to a rock all beaten by the wandering wave. Look upon my locks, let loose like those of one in grief for the dc.ul, and on my robes, heavy with tears as if with rain. My body is a-quiver like standing corn struck by the northern blast, and the letters I am tracing falter beneath my trembling hand. 'Tis not for my desert — for that has come to naught — that I entreat you now; let no favour be due for my service. Yet neither let me suffer for it! If I am not the cause of your deliverance, yet neither is it right that you should cause my death.

'3i

OVID

Has tibi plangendo lugubria pectora lassas 145

infelix tendo trans freta longa manus ;

hos tibi — qui superant — ostendo maesta capillos ! per lacrimas oro, quas tua facta movent — 150

flecte ratem, Tbeseu, versoque relabere vento ! si prius occidero, tu tamen ossa feres !

XI Canace Macareo

Siqua tamen caeeis errabunt scripta lituris,

oblitus a dominae caede libellus erit. dextra tenet calamum, strictum tenet altei*a ferrum,

et iacet in gremio charta soluta met), baec est Aeolidos fratri scribentis imago ; 5

sic videor duro posse placere patri. Ipse necis cuperem nostrae spectator adesset,

auctorisque oculis exigeretur opus ! ut ferus est multoque suis truculentior Euris,

spectasset siccis vulnera nostra genis. 10

scilicet est aliquid, cum saevis vivere ventis ;

ingenio populi convenit ille sui. ille Noto Zephyroque et Sithonio Aquiloni

imperat et pinnis, Eure proterve, tuis. imperat heu ! ventis, tumidae non imperat irae, 15

possidet et vitiis regna minora suis. 132

THE HEROIDES XI

145 These hands, wearied with beating of my

sorrowful breast, unhappy I stretch toward you over the long seas ; these locks — such as remain — in grief I bid you look upon ! By these tears I pray you — tears moved by what you have done — turn about your ship, reverse your sail, glide swiftly back to me ! If I have died before you come, 'twill yet be you who bear away my bones !

XI Canace to Macareus

If aught of what I write is yet blotted dec]) and escapes your eye, 'twill be because the little roll has been stamed by its mistress' blood. My right hand holds the pen, a drawn blade the other holds, and the paper lies unrolled in my lap. This is the picture of Aeolus' daughter writing to her brother; in this guise, it seems, I may please my hard-hearted sire.

7 I would he himself were here to view my end, and the deed were done before the eyes of him who orders it ! Fierce as he i^. tar harsher than his own east-winds, he would look dry-eyed upon my wounds. Surely, something comes from a life with savage winds ; his temper is like that of his subjects. It is Notus, and Zephyrus, and Sithonian Aquilo, over whom he rules, and over thy pinions, wanton Eurus. He rules the winds, alas ! but his swelling wrath In- does not rule, and the realms of his possession are less wide than his faults. Of what

OVID

quid iuvat admotam per avorum nomina caelo

inter cognatos posse referre Iovem ? num minus infestum, funebria munera, ferrum

feminea teneo, non mea tela, manu ? 20

O utinam, Macareu, quae nos eommisit in unum,

venisset leto serior hora meo ! cur umquam plus me, frater, quam frater amasti,

et tibi, non debet quod soror esse, fui ? ipsa quoque incalui, qualemque audire solebam, 25

nescio quern sensi corde tepente deum. fugerat ore color ; macies adduxerat artus ;

sumebant minimos ora coacta cibos ; nee somni faciles et nox erat annua nobis,

et gemitum nullo laesa dolore dabam. 30

nee, cur haec facerem, poteram mihi reddere causain

nee noram, quid amans esset ; at illud eram. Prima malum nutrix animo praesensit anili ;

prima mihi nutrix " Aeoli," dixit, " amas ! " erubui, gremioque pudor deiecit ocellos ; 35

haec satis in tacita signa fatentis erant. iamque tumescebant vitiati pondera ventris,

aegraque furtivum membra gravabat onus, quas mihi non herbas, quae non medicamina nutrix

attulit audaci supposuitque manu, 40

ut penitus nostris— hoc te celavimus unum —

visceribus crescens excuteretur onus ! a, nimium vivax admotis restitit infans

artibus et tecto tutus ab hoste fait !

r34

THE HEROIDES XI

avail for me through my grandsires' names to reach even to the skies, to be able to number Jove among my kin ? Is there less deadliness in the blade — my funeral gift ! — that I hold in my woman's hand, weapon not meet for me ?

21 Ah, Maeareus, would that the hour that made us two as one had come after my death ! Oh why. my brother, did you ever love me more than brother, and why have I been to you what a sister should not be? I, too, was inflamed by love; I felt some god in my glowing heart, and knew him from what I used to hear he was. My colour had tied from my face ; wasting had shrunk my frame ; I scarce took food, and with unwilling mouth ; my sleep was never easy, the night was a year for me, and I groaned, though stricken with no pain. Nor could I render myself a reason why I did these things ; I did not know what it was to be in love — yet in love I was.

33 The first to perceive my trouble, in her old wife's way, was my nurse ; she first, my nurse, said : " Daughter of Aeolus, thou art in love ! " I blushed, and shame bent down my eyes into my bosom ; 1 said no word, but this was sign enough that I confessed. And presently there grew apace the burden of my wayward bosom, and my weakened frame felt the weight of its secret load. What herbs and what medicines did my nurse not bring to me, applying them with bold hand to drive forth entirely from my bosom — this was the only secret we kept from you — the burden that was increasing there ! Ah, too full of life, the little thing withstood the arts employed against it, and was kept safe from its hidden foe !

135

OVID

lam noviens erat orta soror pulcherrima Phoebi, 45

denaque 1 luciferos Luna movebat equos. nescia, quae faceret subitos mihi causa dolores,

et rudis ad partus et nova miles eram. nee tenui voeem. " quid/' ait, " tua crimina prodis ? "

oraque elamantis conscia pressit anus. 50

quid faciam infelix ? gemitus dolor edere cogit,

sed timor et nutrix et pudor ipse vetant. eontineo gemitus elapsaque verba reprendo

et cogor lacrimas conbibere ipsa meas. mors erat ante oculos, et opem Lucina negabat — 55

et grave, si morerer, mors quoque crimen erat — cum super incumbens scissa tunicaque comaque

pressa refovisti pectora nostra tuis, et mihi " vive, soror, soror o carissima," aisti ;

" vive nee unius corpore perde duos ! 60

spes bona det vires ; fratri nam nupta futui'a es.2

illius, de quo mater, et uxor eris." Mortua, crede mihi, tamen ad tua verba revixi :

et positum est uteri crimen onusque mei. quid tibi grataris ? media sedet Aeolus aula ; 65

crimina sunt oculis subripienda patris. frugibus 3 infantem ramisque albentis olivae

et levibus vittis sedula celat anus, fictaque sacra facit dicitque precantia verba ;

dat populus sacris, dat pater ipse viam. 70

iam prope limen