Metamorphoses

FABLE I. [XIII.1-438]

  After the death of Achilles, Ajax and Ulysses contend for his
  armour; the Greek chiefs having adjudged it to the last, Ajax kills
  himself in despair, and his blood is changed into a flower. When
  Ulysses has brought Philoctetes, who is possessed of the arrows of
  Hercules, to the siege, and the destinies of Troy are thereby
  accomplished, the city is taken and sacked, and Hecuba becomes the
  slave of Ulysses.

The chiefs were seated; and a ring of the common people standing
{around}, Ajax, the lord of the seven-fold shield, arose before them.
And as he was impatient in his wrath, with stern features he looked back
upon the Sigæan shores, and the fleet upon the shore, and, stretching
out his hands, he said, “We are pleading,[1] O Jupiter, our cause before
the ships, and Ulysses vies with me! But he did not hesitate to yield to
the flames of Hector, which I withstood, {and} which I drove from this
fleet. It is safer, therefore, for him to contend with artful words than
with his {right} hand. But neither does my talent lie in speaking, nor
his[2] in acting; and as great ability as I have in fierce warfare, so
much has he in talking. Nor do I think, O Pelasgians, that my deeds need
be related to you; for you have been eye-witnesses of them. Let Ulysses
recount his, which he has performed without any witness, {and} of which
night alone[3] is conscious. I own that the prize that is sought is
great; but the rival of Ajax lessens its value. It is no proud thing,
great though it may be, to possess any thing which Ulysses has hoped
for. Already has he obtained the reward of this contest, in which, when
he shall have been worsted, he will be said to have contended with me.
And I, if my prowess were to be questioned, should prevail by the
nobleness of my birth, being the son of Telamon, who took the city[4] of
Troy under the valiant Hercules, and entered the Colchian shores in the
Pagasæan ship. Æacus was his father, who there gives laws to the silent
{shades}, where the heavy stone urges {downward} Sisyphus,[5] the son of
Æolus.

“The supreme Jupiter owns Æacus, and confesses that he is his offspring.
Thus Ajax is the third[6] from Jupiter. And yet, O Greeks, let not this
line of descent avail me in this cause, if it be not common to me with
the great Achilles. He was my cousin;[7] I ask for what belonged to my
cousin? Why does one descended from the blood of Sisyphus, and very like
him in thefts and fraud, intrude the name of a strange family among the
descendants of Æacus? Are the arms to be denied me, because I took up
arms before {him}, and through the means of no informer?[8] and shall
one seem preferable who was the last to take them up, and who, by
feigning madness, declined war, until the son of Nauplius,[9] more
cunning than he, but more unhappy for himself, discovered the
contrivance[10] of his cowardly mind, and dragged him forth to the arms
which he had avoided. Now let him take the best arms who would have
taken none. Let me be dishonoured, and stripped of the gifts that
belonged to my cousin, who presented myself in the front of danger. And
I could wish that that madness had been either real or believed {so to
be}, and that he had never attended us as a companion to the Phrygian
towers, this counsellor of evil! Then, son of Pœas,[11] Lemnos would not
have had thee exposed {there} through our guilt; who now, as they say,
concealed in sylvan caves, art moving the {very} rocks with thy groans,
and art wishing for the son of Laërtes what he has deserved; which, may
the Gods, the Gods, {I say}, grant thee not to pray in vain.

“And now, he that was sworn upon the same arms with ourselves, one of
our leaders, alas! by whom, as his successor, the arrows of Hercules are
used, broken by disease and famine, is being clothed[12] and fed by
birds; and in shooting fowls, he is employing the shafts destined for
the destruction of Troy. Still, he lives, because he did not accompany
Ulysses. And the unhappy Palamedes would have preferred that he had been
left behind; {then} he would have been living, or, at least, he would
have had a death without any criminality. Him, {Ulysses} remembering too
well the unlucky discovery of his madness, pretended to be betraying the
Grecian interests, and proved his feigned charge, and shewed {the
Greeks} the gold, which he had previously hidden in the ground. By exile
then, or by death,[13] has he withdrawn from the Greeks their {best}
strength. Thus Ulysses fights, thus is he to be dreaded. Though he were
to excel even the faithful Nestor in eloquence, yet he would never cause
me to believe that the forsaking of Nestor[14] was not a crime; who,
when he implored {the aid of} Ulysses, retarded by the wound of his
steed, and wearied with the years of old age, was deserted by his
companion. The son of Tydeus knows full well that these charges are not
invented by me, who calling on him often by name, rebuked him, and
upbraided[15] his trembling friend with his flight. The Gods above
behold the affairs of men with just eyes. Lo! he wants help, himself,
who gave it not; and as he left {another}, so was he doomed to be left:
{such} law had he made for himself.

“He called aloud to his companions. I came, and I saw him trembling, and
pale with fear, and shuddering at the impending death. I opposed the
mass of my shield {to the enemy}, and covered him[16] as he lay; and I
preserved (and that is the least part of my praise) his dastardly life.
If thou dost persist in vying, let us return to that place; restore the
enemy, and thy wound, and thy wonted fear; and hide behind my shield,
and under that contend with me. But, after I delivered him, he to whom
his wounds {before} gave no strength for standing, fled, retarded by no
wound {whatever}. Hector approaches, and brings the Gods along with him
to battle, and where he rushes on, not only art thou alarmed, Ulysses,
but even the valiant {are}; so great terror does he bring. Him, as he
exulted in the successes of his bloodstained slaughter, in close
conflict, I laid flat with a huge stone. Him demanding one with whom he
might engage, did I alone withstand; and you, Greeks, prayed {it might
fall} to my lot;[17] and your prayers prevailed. If you inquire into the
issue of this fight, I was not beaten by him.

“Lo! the Trojans bring fire and sword, and Jove, {as well}, against the
Grecian fleet. Where is now the eloquent Ulysses? I, forsooth, protected
a thousand ships, the hopes of your return, with my breast. Grant me the
arms, in return for so many ships. But, if I may be allowed to speak the
truth, a greater honour is sought for them than is for me, and our glory
is united; and Ajax is sought for the arms, and not the arms by Ajax.
Let the Ithacan {Ulysses} compare with these things Rhesus,[18] and the
unwarlike Dolon,[19] and Helenus,[20] the son of Priam, made captive
with the ravished Pallas. By daylight nothing was done; nothing when
Diomedes was afar. If once you give these arms for services so mean,
divide them, and that of Diomedes would be the greater share of them.
But, why these for the Ithacan? who, by stealth and unarmed, ever does
his work, and deceives the unwary enemy by stratagem? The very
brilliancy of his helmet, as it sparkles with bright gold, will betray
his plans, and discover him as he lies hid. But neither will the
Dulichian[21] head, beneath the helm of Achilles, sustain a weight so
great; and the spear[22] from Pelion must be heavy and burdensome for
unwarlike arms. Nor will the shield, embossed with the form of the great
globe, beseem a dastard left hand, and one formed for theft. Why {then},
caitiff, dost thou ask for a gift that will {but} weaken thee? should
the mistake of the Grecian people bestow it on thee, there would be a
cause for thee to be stripped, not for thee to be dreaded by the enemy.
Thy flight, too, (in which, alone, most dastardly {wretch}! thou dost
excel all {others},) will be retarded, when dragging a load so great.
Besides, that shield of thine, which has so rarely experienced the
conflict, is unhurt; for mine, which is gaping in a thousand wounds from
bearing the darts, a new successor must be obtained. In fine, what need
is there for words? Let us be tried in action. Let the arms of that
brave hero be thrown in the midst of the enemy: order them to be fetched
thence, and adorn him that brings them back, with them so brought off.”

The son of Telamon had {now} ended, and a murmur among the multitude
ensued upon his closing words, until the Laërtian hero stood up, and
fixing his eyes, for a short time, on the ground, raised them towards
the chiefs, and opened his mouth in the accents that were looked for;
nor was gracefulness wanting to his eloquent words.

“If my prayers had been of any avail together with yours, Pelasgians,
the successor to a prize so great would not {now} be in question, and
thou wouldst now be enjoying thine arms, and we thee, O Achilles. But
since the unjust Fates have denied him to me and to yourselves, (and
here he wiped his eyes with his hands as though shedding tears,) who
could better succeed the great Achilles than he through whom[23] the
great Achilles joined the Greeks? Only let it not avail him that he
seems to be as stupid as he {really} is; and let not my talents, which
ever served you, O Greeks, be a prejudice to me: and let this eloquence
of mine, if there is any, which now pleads for its possessor, and has
often {done so} for yourselves, stand clear of envy, and let each man
not disown his own advantages. For {as to} descent and ancestors, and
the things which we have not made ourselves, I scarce call these our
own. But, indeed, since Ajax boasts that he is the great grandson of
Jove, Jupiter, too, is the founder of my family, and by just as many
degrees am I distant from him. For Laërtes is my father, Arcesius his,
Jupiter his; nor was any one of these {ever} condemned[24] and banished.
Through the mother,[25] too, Cyllenian {Mercury}, another noble stock,
is added to myself. On the side of either parent there was a God. But
neither because I am more nobly born on my mother’s side, nor because my
father is innocent of his brother’s blood, do I claim the arms {now} in
question. By {personal} merit weigh the cause. So that it be no merit in
Ajax that Telamon and Peleus were brothers; and {so that} not
consanguinity, but the honour of merit, be regarded in {the disposal of}
these spoils. Or if nearness of relationship and the next heir is
sought, Peleus is his sire, and Pyrrhus is his son. What room, {then},
is there for Ajax? Let them be taken to Phthia[26] or to Scyros. Nor is
Teucer[27] any less a cousin of Achilles than he; and yet does he sue
for, does he expect to bear away the arms?

“Since then the contest is simply one of deeds; I, in truth, have done
more than what it is easy for me to comprise in words. Yet I shall
proceed in the order of events. {Thetis}, the Nereid mother, prescient
of coming death, conceals her son by his dress. The disguise of the
assumed dress deceived all, among whom was Ajax. Amid woman’s trinkets I
mixed arms such as would affect the mind of a man. And not yet had the
hero thrown aside the dress of a maiden, when, as he was brandishing a
shield and a spear, I said, ‘O son of a Goddess, Pergamus reserves
itself to fall through thee. Why, {then}, dost thou delay to overthrow
the mighty Troy?’ And {then} I laid my hands on him, and to brave deeds
I sent forth the brave. His deeds then are my own. ’Twas I that subdued
Telephus, as he fought with his lance; ’twas I that recovered him,
vanquished, and begging {for his life}. That Thebes has fallen, is my
doing. Believe me, that I took Lesbos, that I {took} Tenedos, Chrysa[28]
and Cylla, cities of Apollo, and Scyros {too}. Consider too, that the
Lyrnessian[29] walls were levelled with the ground, shaken by my right
hand. And, not to mention other things, ’twas I, in fact, that found one
who might slay the fierce Hector; through me the renowned Hector lies
prostrate. By those arms through which Achilles was found out, I demand
these arms. To him when living I gave them; after his death I ask them
back again.

“After the grief of one[30] had reached all the Greeks, and a thousand
ships had filled the Eubœan Aulis, the breezes long expected were either
not existing or adverse to the fleet; and the ruthless oracles commanded
Agamemnon to slay his innocent daughter for the cruel Diana. This the
father refuses, and is enraged against the Gods themselves, and, a king,
he is still a father. By my words I swayed the gentle disposition of the
parent to the public advantage. Now, indeed, I make this confession, and
let the son of Atreus forgive me as I confess it; before a partial judge
I upheld a difficult cause. Yet the good of the people and his brother,
and the supreme power of the sceptre granted to him, influence him to
balance praise against blood. I was sent, too, to the mother, who was
not to be persuaded, but to be deceived with craft; to whom, if the son
of Telamon had gone, until even now would our sails have been without
wind. A bold envoy, too, I was sent to the towers of Ilium, and the
senate-house of lofty Troy was seen and entered by me; and still was it
filled with their heroes. Undaunted, I pleaded the cause which all
Greece had entrusted to me; and I accused Paris, and I demanded back the
plunder, and Helen {as well}; and I moved Priam and Antenor[31], related
to Priam. But Paris and his brothers, and those who, under him, had been
ravishers, scarce withheld their wicked hands; {and} this thou knowest,
Menelaüs, and that was the first day of my danger in company with thee.
It were a tedious matter to relate the things which, by my counsel and
my valour, I have successfully executed in the duration of this tedious
warfare.

“After the first encounter, the enemy for a long time kept themselves
within the walls of the city, and there was no opportunity for open
fight. At length, in the tenth year we fought. {And} what wast thou
doing in the mean time, thou, who knowest of nothing but battles? what
was the use of thee? But if thou inquirest into my actions: I lay
ambuscades for the enemy; I surround the trenches[32] with redoubts;
I cheer our allies that they may bear with patient minds the tediousness
of a protracted war; I show, {too}, how we are to be supported, and how
to be armed; I am sent[33] whither necessity requires. Lo! by the advice
of Jove, the king, deceived by a form in his sleep, commands him to
dismiss all care of the war {thus} begun. He is enabled, through the
author of it, to defend his own cause. Ajax should not have allowed
this, and should have demanded that Troy be razed. And he should have
fought, the {only} thing he could do. Why, does he not stop them when
about to depart? Why does he not take up arms, and {why not} suggest
some course for the fickle multitude to pursue? This was not too much
for him, who never says any thing but what is grand. Well, and didst
thou take to flight? I was witness of it, and ashamed I was to see, when
thou wast turning thy back, and wast preparing the sails of disgrace.
Without delay, I exclaimed, ‘What are you doing? What madness made you,
O my friends, quit Troy, {well nigh} taken? And what, in this tenth
year, are you carrying home but disgrace?’

“With these and other {words}, for which grief itself had made me
eloquent, I brought back the resisting {Greeks} from the flying fleet.
The son of Atreus calls together his allies, struck with terror; nor,
even yet, does the son of Telamon dare to utter a word; yet
Thersites[34] dares to launch out against the kings with impudent
remarks, although not unpunished by myself. I am aroused, and I incite
the trembling citizens against the foe, and by my voice I reclaim their
lost courage. From that time, whatever that man, whom I drew away as he
was turning his back, may seem to have done bravely, is {all} my own. In
fine, who of the Greeks is either praising thee, or resorts to thee; but
with me the son of Tydeus shares his exploits; he praises me, and is
ever confident while Ulysses is his companion. It is something, out of
so many thousands of the Greeks, to be singled out alone by Diomedes.
Nor was it lot that ordered me to go forth; and yet, despising the
dangers of the night and of the enemy, I slew Dolon, {one} of the
Phrygian race, who dared the same things that we {dared}; though not
before I had compelled him[35] to disclose everything, and had learned
what perfidious Troy designed. Everything had I {now} discovered, and I
had nothing {further} to find out, and I might now have returned, with
my praises going before me. Not content with that, I sought the tent of
Rhesus, and in his own camp slew himself and his attendants. And thus,
as a conqueror, and having gained my own desires, I returned in the
captured chariot, resembling a joyous triumph. Deny me the arms of him
whose horses the enemy had demanded as the price for {one} night’s
service; and let Ajax be {esteemed} your greater benefactor.

“Why should I make reference to the troops of Lycian Sarpedon,[36] mowed
down by my sword? With much bloodshed I slew Cœranos, the son of
Iphitus, and Alastor, and Chromius, and Alcander, and Halius, and
Noëmon, and Prytanis, and I put to death Thoön, with Chersidamas, and
Charops, and Ennomos, impelled by his relentless fate; five of less
renown fell by my hand beneath the city walls. I, too, fellow-citizens,
have wounds, honourable in their place.[37] Believe not {his} crafty
words; here! behold them.” And {then}, with his hand, he pulls aside his
garment, and, “this is the breast,” says he, “that has been ever
employed in your service.”

“But the son of Telamon has spent none of his blood on his friends for
so many years, and he has a body without a {single} wound.[38] But what
signifies that, if he says that he bore arms for the Pelasgian fleet
against both the Trojans and Jupiter himself? I confess it, he did bear
them; nor is it any part of mine with malice to detract from the good
deeds {of others;} but let him not alone lay claim to what belongs to
all, and let him give to yourselves, as well, some of the honour. The
descendant of Actor, safe under the appearance of Achilles, repelled the
Trojans, with their defender, from the ships on the point of being
burnt. He, too, unmindful of the king, and of the chiefs, and of myself,
fancies that he alone dared to engage[39] with Hector in combat, being
the ninth in that duty, and preferred by favour of the lot. But yet,
most brave {chief}, what was the issue of thy combat? Hector came off,
injured by no wound. Ah, wretched me! with how much grief am I compelled
to recollect that time at which Achilles, the bulwark of the Greeks, was
slain: nor tears, nor grief, nor fear, hindered me from carrying his
body aloft from the ground; on these shoulders, I say, on these
shoulders I bore the body of Achilles, and his arms together {with him},
which now, too, I am endeavouring to bear off. I have strength to
suffice for such a weight, {and}, assuredly, I have a soul that will be
sensible of your honours.

“Was then, forsooth! his azure mother {so} anxious in her son’s behalf
that the heavenly gifts, a work of so great ingenuity, a rough soldier,
and one without any genius, should put on? For he will not understand
the engravings on the shield; the ocean, and the earth, and the stars
with the lofty heavens and the Pleïades, and the Hyades, and the Bear
that avoids the sea, and the different cities, and the blazing sword of
Orion; arms he insists on receiving, which he does not understand. What!
and does he charge that I, avoiding the duties of this laborious war,
came but late to the toil begun? and does he not perceive that {in this}
he is defaming the brave Achilles? If he calls dissembling a crime, we
have both of us dissembled. If delay {stands} for a fault, I was earlier
than he. A fond wife detained me, a fond mother Achilles. The first part
of our time was given to them, the rest to yourselves. I am not alarmed,
if now I am unable to defend myself against this accusation, in common
with so great a man. Yet he was found out by the dexterity of Ulysses,
but not Ulysses {by that} of Ajax.

“And that we may not be surprised at his pouring out on me the
reproaches of his silly tongue, against you, too, does he make
objections worthy of shame. Is it base for me, with a false crime to
have charged Palamedes, {and} honourable for you to have condemned him?
But neither could {Palamedes}, the son of Nauplius, defend a crime so
great, and so manifest; nor did you {only} hear the charges against him,
{but} you witnessed them, and in the bribe {itself} the charge was
established. Nor have I deserved to be accused, because Lemnos, {the
isle} of Vulcan, {still} receives {Philoctetes}, the son of Pœas.
{Greeks}, defend your own acts! for you consented to it. Nor yet shall I
deny that I advised him to withdraw himself from the toils of the
warfare and the voyage, and to try by rest to assuage his cruel pains.
He consented, and {still} he lives. This advice was not only well-meant,
but {it was} fortunate as well, when ’twas enough to be well-meant.
Since our prophets demand him for the purpose of destroying Troy,
entrust not that to me. The son of Telamon will be better to go, and by
his eloquence will soften the hero, maddened by diseases and anger, or
by some wile will skilfully bring him thence. Sooner will Simoïs flow
backward, and Ida stand without foliage, and Achaia promise aid to Troy,
than, my breast being inactive in your interest, the skill of stupid
Ajax shall avail the Greeks.

“Though thou be, relentless Philoctetes, enraged against thy friends and
the king, and myself, though thou curse and devote my head,
everlastingly, and though thou wish to have me in thy anguish thrown in
thy way perchance, and to shed my blood; and though if I meet thee,
so thou wilt have the opportunity of meeting me, still will I attempt
{thee, and} will endeavour to bring thee back with me. And, if Fortune
favours me, I will as surely be the possessor of thy arrows, as I was
the possessor of the Dardanian prophet[40] whom I took {prisoner; and
so} I revealed the answers of the Deities and the fates of Troy; {and}
as I carried off the hidden statue[41] of the Phrygian Minerva from the
midst of the enemy. And does Ajax, {then}, compare himself with me? The
Fates, in fact, would not allow Troy to be captured without that
{statue}. Where is the valiant Ajax? where are the boastful words of
that mighty man? Why art thou trembling here? Why dares Ulysses to go
through the guards, and to entrust himself to the night, and, through
fell swords, to enter not only the walls of Troy, but even its highest
towers, and to tear the Goddess from her shrine, and, {thus} torn,
to bear her off amid the enemy?

“Had I not done these things, in vain would the son of Telamon been
bearing the seven hides of the bulls on his left arm. On that night was
the victory over Troy gained by me; then did I conquer Pergamus, when I
rendered it capable of being conquered. Forbear by thy looks,[42] and
thy muttering, to show me the son of Tydeus; a part of the glory in
these things is his own. Neither wast thou alone, when for the allied
fleet thou didst grasp thy shield: a multitude was attending thee,
{while} but one fell to me: who, did he not know that a fighting man is
of less value than a wise one, and that the reward is not the due of the
invincible right hand, would himself, too, have been suing for these
{arms}; the more discreet Ajax would have been suing, and the fierce
Eurypilus,[43] and the son of the famous Andremon;[44] no less, {too}
would Idomeneus,[45] and Meriones[46] sprung from the same land, and the
brother of the greater son of Atreus have sought them. But these, brave
in action, (nor are they second to thee in war,) have {all} yielded to
my wisdom. Thy right hand is of value in war, {but} thy temper is one
that stands in need of my direction. Thou hast strength without
intelligence; I have a care for the future. Thou art able to fight; with
me, the son of Atreus chooses the {proper} time for fighting. Thou only
art of service with thy body; I with my mind: and as much as he who
guides the bark, is superior to the capacity of the rower, as much as
the general is greater than the soldier, so much do I excel thee; and in
my body there is an intellect that is superior to hands: in that {lies}
all my vigour.

“But you, ye chieftains, give the reward to your watchful {servant;} and
for the cares of so many years which I have passed in anxiety, grant
this honour as a compensation for my services. Our toil is now at its
close; I have removed the opposing Fates, and by rendering it capable of
being taken, {in effect} I have taken the lofty Pergamus. Now, by our
common hopes, and the walls of the Trojans doomed to fall, and by those
Gods whom lately I took from the enemy, by anything that remains,
through wisdom to be done; if, too, anything {remains} of bold
enterprize, and to be recovered from a dangerous spot; if you think that
anything is still wanting for the downfall of Troy; {then} remember me;
or if you give not me the arms, concede them to this;” and {then} he
discovers the fatal statue of Minerva.

The body of the chiefs is moved, and {then}, in fact appears what
eloquence can do; and the fluent man receives the arms of a brave one.
He, who so often has alone withstood both Hector, and the sword, and
flames, and Jove {himself}, cannot {now} withstand his wrath alone, and
grief conquers the man that is invincible. He seizes his sword, and he
says:-- “This, at least, is my own; or will Ulysses claim this, too, for
himself. This must I use against myself; and {the blade}, which has
often been wet with the blood of the Phrygians, will now be wet with the
slaughter of its owner: that no one but Ajax {himself}, may be enabled
to conquer Ajax.”

{Thus} he said; and he plunged the fatal sword into his breast, then for
the first time suffering a wound, where it lay exposed to the steel. Nor
were his hands able to draw out the weapon there fixed: the blood itself
forced it out. And the earth, made red by the blood, produced a purple
flower from the green turf, {the same} which had formerly been produced
from the Œbalian wound. Letters common to {that} youth and to the hero,
were inscribed in the middle of the leaves; the latter {belonging to}
the name,[47] the former to the lamentation.

The conqueror, Ulysses, set sail for the country of Hypsipyle,[48] and
of the illustrious Thoas, and the regions infamous for the slaughter
{there} of the husbands of old; that he might bring back the arrows, the
weapons of the Tirynthian {hero}. After he had carried them back to the
Greeks, their owner attending too, the concluding hand was put, at
length, to this protracted war. Troy and Priam fell together; the
wretched wife of Priam lost after every thing {else} her human form, and
alarmed a foreign air[49] with her barkings. Where the long Hellespont
is reduced into a narrow compass, Ilion was in flames; nor had the
flames yet ceased; and the altar of Jove had drank up the scanty blood
of the aged Priam. The priestess of Apollo[50] dragged by the hair,
extends her unavailing hands towards the heavens. The victorious Greeks
drag along the Dardanian matrons, embracing, while they may, the statues
of their country’s Gods, and clinging to the burning temples, an envied
spoil. Astyanax[51] is hurled from those towers from which he was often
wont, when shown by his mother, to behold his father, fighting for
himself, and defending the kingdom of his ancestors.

And now Boreas bids them depart, and with a favourable breeze, the
sails, as they wave, resound, {and} the sailors bid them take advantage
of the winds. “Troy, farewell!” the Trojan women cry;-- “We are torn
away!” and they give kisses to the soil, and leave the smoking roofs of
their country. The last that goes on board the fleet, a dreadful sight,
is Hecuba, found amid the sepulchres of her children. Dulichian hands
have dragged her away, while clinging to their tombs and giving kisses
to their bones; yet the ashes of one has she taken out, and, {so} taken
out, has carried with her in her bosom the ashes of Hector. On the tomb
of Hector she leaves the grey hair of her head, an humble offering, her
hair and her tears. There is opposite to Phrygia, where Troy stood,
a land inhabited by the men of Bistonia. There, was the rich palace of
Polymnestor, to whom thy father, Polydorus, entrusted thee, to be
brought up privately, and removed thee {afar} from the Phrygian arms.
A wise resolution; had he not added, {as well}, great riches, the reward
of crime, the incentive of an avaricious disposition. When the fortunes
of the Phrygians were ruined, the wicked king of the Phrygians took a
sword, and plunged it in the throat of his fosterchild; and, as though
the crime could be removed with the body, he hurled him lifeless from a
rock into the waters below.

    [Footnote 1: _We are pleading._--Ver. 5. The skill of the Poet is
    perceptible in the abrupt commencement of the speech of the
    impetuous Ajax.]

    [Footnote 2: _Nor his._--Ver. 11. Ajax often uses the pronoun
    ‘iste’ as a term of reproach.]

    [Footnote 3: _Night alone._--Ver. 15. By this he means that the
    alleged exploits of Ulysses were altogether fictitious; or that
    they were done in the dark to conceal his fear.]

    [Footnote 4: _Took the city._--Ver. 23. Telamon, was the companion
    of Hercules when he sacked Troy, as a punishment for the perfidy
    of Laomedon.]

    [Footnote 5: _Sisyphus._--Ver. 26. This is intended as a
    reproachful hint against Ulysses, whose mother, Anticlea, was said
    to have been seduced by Sisyphus before her marriage to Laërtes.]

    [Footnote 6: _Ajax is the third._--Ver. 28. That is the third,
    exclusive of Jupiter; for Ajax was the grandson of Æacus, and the
    great grandson of Jupiter.]

    [Footnote 7: _My cousin._--Ver. 31. ‘Frater’ here means, not
    ‘brother,’ but ‘cousin,’ as Peleus and Telamon, the fathers of
    Achilles and Ajax, were brothers.]

    [Footnote 8: _No informer._--Ver. 34. He alludes to the means
    which Ulysses adopted to avoid going to the Trojan war. Pretending
    to be seized with madness, he ploughed the sea-shore, and sowed it
    with salt. To ascertain the truth, Palamedes placed his infant
    son, Telemachus, before the plough; on which Ulysses turned on one
    side, to avoid hurting the child, which was considered a proof
    that his madness was not real.]

    [Footnote 9: _Son of Nauplius._--Ver. 39. Palamedes was the son of
    Nauplius, the king of Eubœa, and a son of Neptune.]

    [Footnote 10: _The contrivance._--Ver. 38. Ulysses forged a letter
    from Priam, in which the king thanked Palamedes for his intended
    assistance to the Trojan cause, and begged to present him a sum of
    money. By bribing the servants of Palamedes, he caused a large
    quantity of gold to be buried in the ground, under his tent. He
    then caused the letter to be intercepted, and to be carried to
    Agamemnon. On the appearance of Palamedes to answer the charge,
    Ulysses appeared seemingly as his friend, and suggested, that if
    no gold should be found in his possession, he must be innocent.
    The gold, however, being found, Palamedes was stoned to death.]

    [Footnote 11: _Son of Pœas._--Ver. 45. Philoctetes was the
    possessor of the arrows of Hercules, without the presence of which
    Troy could not be taken. Accompanying the Greeks to the Trojan
    war, he was wounded in the foot by one of the arrows; and the
    smell arising from the wound was so offensive, that, by the advice
    of Ulysses, he was left behind, in the island of Lemnos, one of
    the Cyclades.]

    [Footnote 12: _Is being clothed._--Ver. 53. The Poet Attius, as
    quoted by Cicero, says that Philoctetes, while in Lemnos, made
    himself clothing out of the feathers of birds.]

    [Footnote 13: _Or by death._--Ver. 61. Exile in the case of
    Philoctetes; death, in that of Palamedes.]

    [Footnote 14: _Forsaking of Nestor._--Ver. 64. Nestor having been
    wounded by Paris, and being overtaken by Hector, was on the point
    of perishing, when Diomedes came to his rescue, Ulysses having
    taken to flight. See the Iliad, Book iii.]

    [Footnote 15: _And upbraided._--Ver. 69. He alludes to the words
    in the Iliad, which Homer puts in the mouth of Diomedes.]

    [Footnote 16: _And covered him._--Ver. 75. Ajax, at the request of
    Menelaüs, protected Ulysses with his shield, when he was wounded.]

    [Footnote 17: _Fall to my lot._--Ver. 85. He alludes to the
    occasion when some of the bravest of the Greeks drew lots which
    should accept the challenge of Hector: the Greeks wishing,
    according to Homer, that the lot might fall to Ajax Telamon, Ajax
    Oïleus, or Agamemnon.]

    [Footnote 18: _Rhesus._--Ver. 98. He was slain by Ulysses and
    Diomedes on the night on which he arrived, Iliad, Book x.]

    [Footnote 19: _Dolon._--Ver. 98. Being sent out by Hector to spy,
    he was intercepted by Ulysses and Diomedes, and slain at Troy.
    Iliad, Book x.]

    [Footnote 20: _Helenus._--Ver. 99. Being skilled in prophesy,
    after he was taken prisoner by Diomedes and Ulysses, his life was
    saved; and marrying Andromache, after the death of Pyrrhus, he
    succeeded to the throne of part of the kingdom of Chaonia.]

    [Footnote 21: _Dulichian._--Ver. 107. Dulichium was an island of
    the Ionian Sea, near Ithaca, and part of the realms of Ulysses.]

    [Footnote 22: _The spear._--Ver. 109. The spear of Achilles had
    been cut from the wood on Mount Pelion, and given by the Centaur
    Chiron to his father Peleus.]

    [Footnote 23: _He through whom._--Ver. 134. Through whom Achilles
    had been discovered, concealed among the daughters of Lycomedes,
    king of Seyros.]

    [Footnote 24: _Ever condemned._--Ver. 145. He alludes to the joint
    crime of Peleus the uncle, and Telamon, the father of Ajax, who
    were banished for the murder of their brother Phocus.]

    [Footnote 25: _Through the mother._--Ver. 146. Anticlea, the
    mother of Ulysses, was the daughter of Autolycus, of whom Mercury
    was the father by Chione, the daughter of Dædalion.]

    [Footnote 26: _Phthia._--Ver. 156. Phthia was the city of
    Thessaly, where Peleus, the father of Achilles, was residing;
    while Pyrrhus, his son, was living with his mother Deidamia,
    in the isle of Scyros, one of the Cyclades.]

    [Footnote 27: _Teucer._--Ver. 157. Teucer was the cousin of
    Achilles, being the son of Telamon, and the half-brother of Ajax;
    Hesione being the mother of Teucer, while Ajax was the son of
    Eubœa.]

    [Footnote 28: _Chrysa._--Ver. 174. Chrysa and Cylla were cities in
    the vicinity of Troy. This Scyros was, probably, not the island of
    that name, but some place near Troy.]

    [Footnote 29: _Lyrnessian._--Ver. 176. This was a city of the
    Troad, on the taking of which by Achilles, Hippodamia, or Briseïs,
    the daughter of Bryses, was made captive by Achilles.]

    [Footnote 30: _Grief of one._--Ver. 181. He alludes to the
    misfortune of Menelaüs in losing his wife, if, indeed, it could be
    deemed a misfortune.]

    [Footnote 31: _Antenor._--Ver. 201. Antenor, who was related to
    Priam, always advocated peace with the Greeks; for which reason,
    according to Livy, the Greeks did not treat him as an enemy.]

    [Footnote 32: _Surround the trenches._--Ver. 212. He probably
    alludes to the trenches thrown up before the ships of the Greeks,
    and defended by embankments, which were afterwards destroyed by
    Neptune.]

    [Footnote 33: _I am sent._--Ver. 215. As on the occasion when he
    was sent to restore Chryseis to her father Chryses, the priest of
    Apollo, that the pestilence might be stayed, which had been sent
    by the offended God.]

    [Footnote 34: _Thersites._--Ver. 233. He was the most deformed,
    cowardly, and impudent of the Greeks, who, always abusing his
    betters, was beaten by Ulysses, and was at last killed by Achilles
    with a blow of his fist.]

    [Footnote 35: _Compelled him._--Ver. 245. When he was taken
    prisoner by them, Ulysses and Diomedes compelled Dolon to disclose
    what was going on in the Trojan camp, and learned from him the
    recent arrival of Rhesus, the son of either Mars or Strymon, and
    the king of Thrace.]

    [Footnote 36: _Sarpedon._--Ver. 255. He was the son of Jupiter and
    Europa, and was king of Lycia. Aiding the Trojans, he was slain by
    Patroclus.]

    [Footnote 37: _In their place._--Ver. 263. That is, inflicted on
    the breast, and not on the back.]

    [Footnote 38: _A single wound._--Ver. 267. He alludes to his being
    invulnerable, from having been wrapped in the lion’s skin of
    Hercules.]

    [Footnote 39: _Dared to engage._--Ver. 275. Hector and Ajax
    Telamon meeting in single combat, neither was the conqueror; but
    on parting they exchanged gifts, which were fatal to them both.
    Hector was dragged round the walls of Troy by the belt which he
    received from Ajax; while the latter committed suicide with the
    sword which was given to him by Hector.]

    [Footnote 40: _Dardanian prophet._--Ver. 335. Helenus, the son of
    Priam.]

    [Footnote 41: _The hidden statue._--Ver. 337. This was the
    Palladium, or statue of Minerva, which was destined to be the
    guardian of the safety of Troy, so long as it was in the
    possession of the Trojans.]

    [Footnote 42: _By thy looks._--Ver. 350. We are to suppose, that
    here Ajax is nodding at, or pointing towards Diomedes, as having
    helped Ulysses on all the occasions which he names, he having been
    his constant companion in his exploits.]

    [Footnote 43: _Eurypilus._--Ver. 357. He was the son of Evæmon,
    and came with forty ships to aid the Greeks. He was from Ormenius,
    a city of Thessaly.]

    [Footnote 44: _Andremon._--Ver. 357. Thoas, the son of Andremon,
    was the leader of the Ætolians; he came with forty ships to the
    Trojan war.]

    [Footnote 45: _Idomeneus._--Ver. 358. He was the son of Deucalion,
    king of Crete. After the siege of Troy, he settled at Salentinum,
    a promontory of Calabria, in Italy.]

    [Footnote 46: _Meriones._--Ver. 359. He was the nephew and
    charioteer of Idomeneus.]

    [Footnote 47: _To the name._--Ver. 398. See note to Book x., line
    207.]

    [Footnote 48: _Country of Hypsipyle._--Ver. 399. The island of
    Lemnos is here called the country of Hypsipyle, who saved the life
    of her father Thoas, when the other women of the island slew the
    males.]

    [Footnote 49: _A foreign air._--Ver. 406. Namely, Thrace, which
    was far away from her native country.]

    [Footnote 50: _Priestess of Apollo._--Ver. 410. Cassandra was the
    priestess of Apollo. Being ravished by Ajax Oïleus, she became the
    captive of Agamemnon, and was slain by Clytemnestra.]

    [Footnote 51: _Astyanax._--Ver. 415. He was the only child of
    Hector and Andromache. Ulysses threw him from the top of a high
    tower, that none of the royal blood might survive.]


EXPLANATION.

  It may with justice be said, that in the speeches of Ajax Telamon,
  and Ulysses, here given, the Poet has presented us with a
  masterpiece of genius; both in the lively colours in which he has
  described the two rivals, and the ingenious manner in which he has
  throughout sustained the contrast between their respective
  characters.

  The ancient writers are not agreed upon the question, who was the
  mother of Ajax Telamon; Dares says that it was Hesione; while
  Apollodorus, Plutarch, Tzetzes and others, allege that it was
  Peribœa, the daughter of Alcathoüs, the son of Pelops. Pindar and
  Apollodorus say, that Hercules, on going to visit his friend
  Telamon, prayed to Jupiter that Telamon might have a son, whose skin
  should be as impenetrable as that of the Nemæan lion, which he then
  wore. As he prayed, he espied an eagle; upon which, he informed his
  friend that a favourable event awaited his prayer, and desired him
  to call his son after the name of an eagle, which in the Greek is
  αἰετὸς. The Scholiast on Sophocles, Suidas and Tzetzes, say further,
  that when Hercules returned to see Telamon, after the birth of Ajax,
  he covered him with the lion’s skin, and that by this means Ajax
  became invulnerable except in that spot of his body, which was
  beneath the hole which the arrow of Hercules had made in the skin of
  the beast.

  Dictys, Suidas, and Cedrenus affirm, that the dispute of Ulysses and
  Ajax Telamon was about the Palladium, to which each of them laid
  claim. They add, that the Grecian nobles, having adjudged it to
  Ulysses, Ajax threatened to slay them, and was found dead in his
  tent the next morning; but it is more generally stated to the effect
  here related by Ovid, that he killed himself, because he could not
  obtain the armour of Achilles. Filled with grief and anger combined,
  he became distracted; and after falling on some flocks, which in his
  madness he took for enemies, he at last stabbed himself with the
  sword which he had received from Hector. This account has been
  followed by Euripides, in his tragedy on the subject of the death of
  Ajax; and Homer seems to allude to this story, when he makes Ulysses
  say, that on his descent to the Infernal Regions, the shades of all
  the Grecian heroes immediately met him, except that of Ajax, whose
  resentment at their former dispute about the armour of Achilles was
  still so warm, that he would not come near him. The Scholiast on
  Homer, and Eustathius, say that Agamemnon being much embarrassed how
  to behave in a dispute which might have proved fatal to the Grecian
  cause, ordered the Trojan prisoners to come before the council to
  give their opinion, as to which of them had done the most mischief;
  and that they answered in favour of Ulysses. The Scholiast on
  Aristophanes also adds, that Agamemnon, not satisfied with this
  enquiry, sent out spies to know what was the opinion of the Trojans
  on the relative merits of Ulysses and Ajax; and that upon their
  report, he decided in favour of Ulysses.

  According to Pliny and Pausanias, Ajax was buried near the
  promontory of Sigæum, where a tomb was erected for him; though other
  writers, on the authority of Dictys, place his tomb on the
  promontory of Rhœtæum. Horace speaks of him as being denied the
  honour of a funeral; but he evidently alludes to a passage in the
  tragedy of Sophocles, where the poet introduces Agamemnon as
  obstinately refusing to allow him burial, till he is softened by the
  entreaties of Teucer.

  It is probable that Homer knew nothing of the story here mentioned
  relative to the concealment of Achilles, disguised in female
  apparel, by Thetis, in the court of Lycomedes, her brother; for
  speaking of the manner in which Achilles engaged in the war, he says
  that Nestor and Ulysses went to visit Peleus and Menœtius, and
  easily prevailed with them that Achilles and Patroclus should
  accompany them to the war. It was, however, at the court of
  Lycomedes that Achilles fell in love with and married Deidamia, by
  whom he had Pyrrhus, or Neoptolemus, who was present at the taking
  of Troy, at a very early age.

  The story of Polydorus is related in the third Book of the Æneid,
  and is also told by Hyginus, with some variations. He says that
  Polydorus was sent by Priam to Polymnestor, king of Thrace, while he
  was yet in his cradle; and that Ilione, the daughter of Priam,
  distrusting the cruelty and avarice of Polymnestor, who was her
  husband, educated the child as her own son, and made their own son
  Deiphylus pass for Polydorus, the two infants being of the same age.
  He also says that the Greeks, after the taking of Troy, offered
  Electra to Polymnestor in marriage, on condition that he should
  divorce Ilione, and slay Polydorus, and that Polymnestor, having
  acceded to their proposal, unconsciously killed his own son
  Deiphylus. Polydorus going to consult the oracle concerning his
  future fortune, was told, that his father was dead, and his native
  city reduced to ashes; on which he imagined that the oracle had
  deceived him; but returning to Thrace, his sister informed him of
  the secret, on which he deprived Polymnestor of his sight.


FABLES III. AND IV. [XIII.439-622]

  In returning from Troy, the Greeks are stopped in Thrace by the
  shade of Achilles, who requests that Polyxena shall be sacrificed to
  his manes. While Hecuba is fetching water with which to bathe the
  body of her daughter, she espies the corpse of her son Polydorus.
  In her exasperations she repairs to the court of Polymnestor; and
  having torn out his eyes, is transformed into a bitch. Memnon, who
  has been slain by Achilles, is honoured with a magnificent funeral,
  and, at the prayer of Aurora, his ashes are transformed by Jupiter
  into birds, since called Memnonides.

On the Thracian shore the son of Atreus had moored his fleet, until the
sea was calm, {and} until the wind was more propitious. Here, on a
sudden, Achilles, as great as he was wont to be when alive, rises from
the ground, bursting far and wide, and, like to one threatening, revives
the countenance of that time when he fiercely attacked Agamemnon with
his lawless sword. “And are you departing, unmindful of me, ye Greeks?”
he says; “and is all grateful remembrance of my valour buried together
with me? Do not so. And that my sepulchre may not be without honour, let
Polyxena slain appease the ghost of Achilles.” {Thus} he said; and his
companions obeying the implacable shade, the noble and unfortunate maid,
and more than {an ordinary} woman, torn from the bosom of her mother,
which she now cherished almost alone, was led to the tomb, and became a
sacrifice at his ruthless pile.

She, mindful of herself, after she was brought to the cruel altar, and
had perceived that the savage rites were preparing for her; and when she
saw Neoptolemus standing {by}, and wielding his sword, and fixing his
eyes upon her countenance, said-- “Quickly make use of this noble blood:
{in me} there is no resistance: and do thou bury thy weapons either in
my throat or in my breast!” and, at the same time she laid bare her
throat and her breast; “should I, Polyxena, forsooth,[52] either endure
to be the slave of any person, or will any sacred Deity be appeased by
such a sacrifice. I only wish that my death could be concealed from my
mother. My mother is the impediment; and she lessens my joys at death.
Yet it is not my death, but her own life, that should be lamented by
her. Only, stand ye off, lest I should go to the Stygian shades not a
free woman: if {in this} I demand what is just; and withhold the hands
of males from the contact of a virgin. My blood will be the more
acceptable to him, whoever it is that you are preparing to appease by my
slaughter. Yet, if the last prayers of my lips move any of you,--’tis
the daughter of king Priam, {and} not a captive that entreats--return my
body unconsumed to my mother, and let her not purchase for me with gold,
but with tears, the sad privilege of a sepulchre. When {in former times}
she could, then used she to purchase with gold.”

{Thus} she said; but the people did not restrain those tears which she
restrained. Even the priest himself, weeping and reluctant, divided her
presented breast with the piercing steel. She, sinking to the earth on
her failing knees, maintained an undaunted countenance to the last
moment of her life. Even then was it her care, when she fell, to cover
the features that ought to be concealed, and to preserve the honour of
her chaste modesty. The Trojan matrons received her, and reckoned the
children of Priam whom they had had to deplore; and how much blood one
house had expended. And they lament thee, Oh virgin! and thee, Oh thou!
so lately called a royal wife {and} a royal mother, {once} the
resemblance of flourishing Asia, but now a worthless prey amid the
plunder {of Troy}; which the conquering Ulysses would have declined as
his, but that thou hadst brought Hector forth. {And} scarce did Hector
find an owner for his mother. She, embracing the body bereft of a soul
so brave, gave to that as well, those tears which so oft she had given
for her country, her children, and her husband; {and} her tears she
poured in his wounds. And she impressed kisses with her lips, and beat
her breast {now} accustomed to it; and trailing her grey hairs in the
clotted blood, many things indeed did she say, but these as well, as she
tore her breast:

“My daughter, the last affliction (for what now remains?) to thy mother:
my daughter, thou liest prostrate, and I behold thy wound {as} my own
wounds. Lo! lest I should have lost any one of my children without
bloodshed, thou, too, dost receive thy wound. Still, because {thou wast}
a woman, I supposed thee safe from the sword; and {yet}, a woman, thou
hast fallen by the sword. The same Achilles, the ruin of Troy, and the
bereaver of myself, the same has destroyed thus many of thy brothers,
{and} thyself. But, after he had fallen by the arrows of Paris and of
Phœbus, ‘Now, at least,’ I said, ‘Achilles is no {longer} to be
dreaded;’ and yet even now, was he to be dreaded by me. The very ashes
of him, as he lies buried, rage against this family; and {even} in the
tomb have we found him an enemy. For the descendant of Æacus have I been
{thus} prolific. Great Ilion lies prostrate, and the public calamity is
completed by a dreadful catastrophe; if indeed, it is completed.
Pergamus alone remains for me: and my sorrow is still in its career. So
lately the greatest woman in the world, powerful in so many sons-in-law,
and children[53], and daughters-in-law, and in my husband, now I am
dragged into exile, destitute, {and} torn away from the tombs of my
kindred, as a present to Penelope. She, pointing me out to the matrons
of Ithaca, as I tease my allotted task, will say, ‘This is that famous
mother of Hector; this is the wife of Priam.’ And, now thou, who after
the loss of so many {children}, alone didst alleviate the sorrows of thy
mother, hast made the atonement at the tomb of the enemy. Atoning
sacrifices for an enemy have I brought forth. For what purpose, lasting
like iron, am I reserved? and why do I linger {here}? To what end dost
thou, pernicious age, detain me? Why, ye cruel Deities, unless to the
end that I may see fresh deaths, do ye reprieve an aged woman of years
so prolonged? Who could have supposed, that after the fall of Troy,
Priam could have been pronounced happy? Blessed in his death, he has not
beheld thee, my daughter, {thus} cut off; and at the same moment, he
lost his life and his kingdom.

“But, I suppose, thou, a maiden of royal birth, wilt be honoured with
funeral rites, and thy body will be deposited in the tombs of thy
ancestors. This is not the fortune of thy house; tears and a handful of
foreign sand will be thy lot, the {only} gifts of a mother. We have lost
all; a child most dear to his mother, now alone remains as a reason for
me to endure to live yet for a short time, once the youngest of {all} my
male issue, Polydorus, entrusted on these coasts to the Ismarian king.
Why, in the mean time, am I delaying to bathe her cruel wounds with the
stream, her features, too, besmeared with dreadful blood?”

{Thus} she spoke; and with aged step she proceeded towards the shore,
tearing her grey locks. “Give me an urn, ye Trojan women,” the unhappy
{mother} had just said, in order that she might take up the flowing
waters, {when} she beheld[54] the body of Polydorus thrown up on the
shore, and the great wounds made by the Thracian weapons. The Trojan
women cried out aloud; with grief she was struck dumb; and very grief
consumed both her voice and the tears that arose within; and much
resembling a hard rock she became benumbed. And at one moment she fixed
her eyes on the ground before her; {and} sometimes she raised her
haggard features towards the skies; {and} now she viewed the features,
now the wounds of her son, as he lay; the wounds especially; and she
armed and prepared herself for vengeance by rage. Soon as she was
inflamed by it, as though she {still} remained a queen, she determined
to be revenged, and was wholly {employed} in {devising} a {fitting} form
of punishment. And as the lioness rages when bereft of her sucking
whelp, and having found the tracks of his feet, follows the enemy that
she sees not; so Hecuba, after she had mingled rage with mourning, not
forgetful of her spirit, {but} forgetful of her years, went to
Polymnestor, the contriver of this dreadful murder, and demanded an
interview; for that it was her wish to show him a concealed treasure
left for him to give to her son.

The Odrysian {king} believes her, and, inured to the love of gain, comes
to a secret spot. Then with soothing lips, he craftily says, “Away with
delays, Hecuba, {and} give the present to thy son; all that thou givest,
and what thou hast already given, I swear by the Gods above, shall be
his.” Sternly she eyes him as he speaks, and falsely swears; and she
boils with heaving rage; and so flies on him, seized by a throng of the
captive matrons, and thrusts her fingers into his perfidious eyes; and
of their sight she despoils his cheeks, and plunges her hands {into the
sockets}, (’tis rage that makes her strong); and, defiled with his
guilty blood, she tears not his eyes, for they are not left, {but} the
places for his eyes.

Provoked by the death of their king, the Thracian people begin to attack
the Trojan {matron} with the hurling of darts and of stones. But she
attacks the stones thrown at her with a hoarse noise, and with bites;
and attempting to speak, her mouth just ready for the words, she barks
aloud. The place {still} exists, and derives its name[55] from the
circumstance; and long remembering her ancient misfortunes, even then
did she howl dismally through the Sithonian plains. Her {sad} fortune
moved both her own Trojans, and her Pelasgian foes, and all the Gods as
well; so much so, that even the wife and sister of Jove herself denied
that Hecuba had deserved that fate.

Although she has favoured those same arms, there is not leisure for
Aurora to be moved by the calamities and the fall of Troy. A nearer care
and grief at home for her lost Memnon is afflicting her. Him his
rosy-coloured mother saw perish by the spear of Achilles on the Phrygian
plains. {This} she saw; and that colour with which the hours of the
morning grow ruddy, turned pale, and the æther lay hid in clouds. But
the parent could not endure to behold his limbs laid on the closing
flames. But with loose hair, just as she was, she disdained not to fall
down at the knees of great Jove, and to add these words to her tears:
“Inferior to all {the Goddesses} which the golden æther does sustain,
(for throughout all the world are my temples the fewest), still,
a Goddess, I am come; not that thou shouldst grant me temples and days
of sacrifice, and altars to be heated with fires. But if thou
considerest how much I, a female, perform for thee, at the time when,
with the early dawn, I keep the confines of the night, thou wouldst
think that some reward ought to be given to me. But that is not my care,
nor is such now the condition of Aurora such that she should demand the
honours deserved by her. Bereft of my Memnon am I come; {of him} who,
in vain, wielded valiant arms for his uncle, and who in his early years
(’twas thus ye willed it,) was slain by the brave Achilles. Give him,
I pray, supreme ruler of the Gods, some honour, as a solace for his
death, and ease the wounds of a mother.”

Jove nods his assent; when {suddenly} the lofty pile of Memnon sinks
with its towering fires, and volumes of black smoke darken the {light
of} day. Just as when the rivers exhale the rising fogs, and the sun is
not admitted below them. The black embers fly, and rolling into one
body, they thicken, and take a form, and assume heat and life from the
flames. Their own lightness gives them wings; and first, like birds,
{and} then real birds, they flutter with their wings. At once
innumerable sisters are fluttering, whose natal origin is the same. And
thrice do they go around the pile, and thrice does their clamour rise in
concert into the air. In the fourth flight they separate their company.
Then two fierce tribes wage war from opposite sides, and with their
beaks and crooked claws expend their rage, and weary their wings and
opposing breasts; and down their kindred bodies fall, a sacrifice to the
entombed ashes, and they remember that from a great man they have
received their birth. Their progenitor gives a name to these birds so
suddenly formed, called Memnonides after him; when the Sun has run
through the twelve signs {of the Zodiac}, they fight, doomed to perish
in battle, in honour of their parent.[56]

To others, therefore, it seemed a sad thing, that the daughter of Dymas
was {now} barking; {but} Aurora was intent on her own sorrows; and even
now she sheds the tears of affection, and sprinkles them in dew over all
the world.

    [Footnote 52: _Forsooth._--460. Clarke translates ‘scilicet,’
    ‘I warrant ye.’]

    [Footnote 53: _And children._--Ver. 509. Hyginus names fifty-four
    children of Priam, of whom seventeen were by Hecuba.]

    [Footnote 54: _She beheld._--Ver. 536. Euripides represents, in
    his tragedy of Hecuba, that a female servant, sent by Hecuba to
    bring water from the sea shore for the purpose of washing the body
    of Polyxena, was the first to see the corpse of Polydorus.]

    [Footnote 55: _Derives its name._--Ver. 569. Strabo places it near
    Sestos, in the Thracian Chersonesus, and calls it κυνὸς σῆμα, ‘The
    bitches’ tomb.’]

    [Footnote 56: _Of their parent._--Ver. 619. He perhaps alludes to
    the fights of the Gladiators, on the occasion of the funerals of
    the Roman patricians. ‘Parentali perituræ Marte,’ is rendered by
    Clarke, ‘to fall in the fight of parentation.’]


EXPLANATION.

  The particulars which Ovid here gives of the misfortunes that befell
  the family of Priam, with the exception of a few circumstances,
  agree perfectly with the narratives of the ancient historians.

  According to Dictys, Philostratus, and Hyginus, after Achilles was
  slain by the treachery of Paris, on the eve of his marriage with
  Polyxena, she became inconsolable at his death, and returning to the
  Grecian camp, she was kindly received by Agamemnon; but being unable
  to get the better of her despair, she stole out of the camp at
  night, and stabbed herself at the tomb of Achilles. Philostratus
  adds, that the ghost of Achilles appeared to Apollonius Tyanæus, the
  hero of his story, and gave him permission to ask him any questions
  he pleased, assuring him, that he would give him full information on
  the subject of them. Among other things, Apollonius desired to know
  if it was the truth that the Greeks had sacrificed Polyxena on his
  tomb; to which the ghost replied, that her grief made her take the
  resolution not to survive her intended husband, and that she had
  killed herself.

  Other writers, agreeing with Ovid as to the manner of her death,
  tell us that it was Pyrrhus who sacrificed Polyxena to his father’s
  shade, to revenge his death, of which, though innocently, she had
  been the cause. Pausanias, who says that this was the general
  opinion, avers, on what ground it is difficult to conceive, that
  Homer designedly omitted this fact, because it was so dishonourable
  to the Greeks; and in his description of the paintings at Delphi,
  by Polygnotus, of the destruction of Troy, he says that Polyxena was
  there represented as being led out to the tomb of Achilles, where
  she was sacrificed by the Greeks. He also says, that he had seen her
  story painted in the same manner at Pergamus, Athens, and other
  places. Many of the poets, and Virgil in the number, affirm that
  Polyxena was sacrificed in Phrygia, near Troy, on the tomb of
  Achilles, he having desired it at his death; while Euripides says
  that it was in the Thracian Chersonesus, on a cenotaph, which was
  erected there in honour of Achilles: and that his ghost appearing,
  Calchas was consulted, who answered, that it was necessary to
  sacrifice Polyxena, which was accordingly done by Pyrrhus.

  The ancient writers are divided as to the descent of Hecuba. Homer,
  who has been followed by his Scholiast, and by Ovid and Suidas, says
  that she was the daughter of Dymas, King of Phrygia. Euripides says
  that she was the daughter of Cisscus, and with him Virgil and
  Servius agree. Apollodorus, again, makes her to be descended from
  Sangar and Merope. In the distribution of spoil after the siege of
  Troy, Hecuba fell to the share of Ulysses, and became his slave; but
  died soon after, in Thrace. Plautus and Servius allege that the
  Greeks themselves circulated the story of her transformation into a
  bitch, because she was perpetually railing at them, to provoke them
  to put her to death, rather than condemn her to pass her life as a
  slave. According to Strabo and Pomponius Mela, in their time, the
  place of her burial was still to be seen in Thrace. Euripides, in
  his Hecuba, has not followed this tradition, but represents her as
  complaining that the Greeks had chained her to the door of Agamemnon
  like a dog. Perhaps she became the slave of Agamemnon after Ulysses
  had left the army, on his return to Ithaca; and it is possible that
  the story of her transformation may have been solely founded on this
  tradition. She bore to Priam ten sons and seven daughters, and
  survived them all except Helenus; most of her sons having fallen by
  the hand of Achilles.

  Many ancient writers, with whom Ovid here agrees, affirm that Memnon
  was the son of Tithonus, the brother of Priam, and Aurora, or Eos,
  the Goddess of the morn. They also say that he came to assist the
  Trojans with ten thousand Persians, and as many Æthiopians. Diodorus
  Siculus asserts that Memnon was said to have been the son of Aurora,
  because he left Phrygia, and went to settle in the East. It is not
  clear in what country he fixed his residence. Some say that it was
  at Susa, in Persia; others that it was in Egypt, or in Æthiopia,
  which perhaps amounts to the same, as Æthiopia was not in general
  distinguished from the Higher or Upper Egypt. Marsham is of opinion
  that Memnon was the same with Amenophis, one of the kings of Egypt:
  while Le Clerc considers him to have been the same person as Ham,
  the son of Noah; and Vossius identifies him with Boalcis, a God of
  the Syrians. It seems probable that he was an Egyptian, who had
  perhaps formed an alliance with the reigning family of Troy.


FABLES V. AND VI. [XIII.623-718]

  After the taking of Troy, Æneas escapes with his father and his son,
  and goes to Delos. Anius, the priest of Apollo, recounts to him how
  his daughters have been transformed into doves, and at parting they
  exchange presents. The Poet here introduces the story of the
  daughters of Orion, who, having sacrificed their lives for the
  safety of Thebes, when ravaged by a plague, two young men arise out
  of their ashes.

But yet the Fates do not allow the hope of Troy to be ruined even with
its walls. The Cytherean hero bears on his shoulders the sacred relics
and his father, another sacred relic, a venerable burden. In his
affection, out of wealth so great, he selects that prize, and his own
Ascanius, and with his flying fleet is borne through the seas from
Antandros,[57] and leaves the accursed thresholds of the Thracians, and
the earth streaming with the blood of Polydorus; and, with good winds
and favouring tide, he enters the city of Apollo, his companions
attending him.

Anius, by whom, as king, men were, {and} by whom, as priest, Phœbus was
duly provided for, received him both into his temple and his house, and
showed him the city and the dedicated temples, and the two trunks of
trees once grasped[58] by Latona in her labour. Frankincense being given
to the flames, and wine poured forth on the frankincense, and the
entrails of slain oxen[59] being duly burnt, they repair to the royal
palace, and reclining on lofty couches, with flowing wine, they take the
gifts of Ceres. Then the pious Anchises {says}, “O chosen priest of
Phœbus, am I deceived? or didst thou not have a son, also, when first I
beheld these walls, and twice two daughters, so far as I remember?” To
him Anius replies, shaking his temples wreathed with snow-white fillets,
and says, “Thou art not mistaken, greatest hero; thou didst see me the
parent of five children, whom now (so great a vicissitude of fortune
affects mankind) thou seest almost bereft {of all}. For what assistance
is my absent son to me, whom Andros, a land {so} called after his name,
possesses, holding that place and kingdom on behalf of his father?

“The Delian {God} granted him {the art of} augury; to my female progeny
Liber gave other gifts, exceeding {both} wishes and belief. For, at the
touch of my daughters, all things were transformed into corn, and the
stream of wine, and the berry of Minerva; and in these were there rich
advantages. When the son of Atreus, the destroyer of Troy, learned this
(that thou mayst not suppose that we, too, did not in some degree feel
your storms) using the force of arms, he dragged them reluctantly from
the bosom of their father, and commanded them to feed, with their
heavenly gifts, the Argive fleet. Whither each of them could, they made
their escape. Eubœa was sought by two; and by as many of my daughters,
was Andros, their brother’s {island}, sought. The forces came, and
threatened war if they were not given up. Natural affection, subdued by
fear, surrendered to punishment those kindred breasts; and, that thou
mayst be able to forgive a timid brother, there was no Æneas, no Hector
to defend Andros, through whom you {Trojans} held out to the tenth year.
And now chains were being provided for their captive arms. Lifting up
towards heaven their arms still free, they said, ‘Father Bacchus, give
us thy aid!’ and the author of their gift did give them aid; if
destroying them, in a wondrous manner, be called giving aid. By what
means they lost their shape, neither could I learn, nor can I now tell.
The sum of their calamity is known {to me}: they assumed wings, and were
changed into birds of thy consort,[60] the snow-white doves.”

With such and other discourse, after they have passed the {time of}
feasting, the table being removed, they seek sleep. And they rise with
the day, and repair to the oracle of Phœbus, who bids them seek the
ancient mother and the kindred shores. The king attends, and presents
them with gifts when about to depart; a sceptre to Anchises, a scarf and
a quiver to his grandson, {and} a goblet to Æneas, which formerly
Therses, his Ismenian guest, had sent him from the Aonian shores; this
Therses had sent to him, {but} the Mylean Alcon had made it, and had
carved it with this long device:

There was a city, and you might point out {its} seven gates: these were
in place of[61] a name, and showed what {city} it was. Before the city
was a funeral, and tombs, and fires, and funeral piles; and matrons,
with hair dishevelled and naked breasts, expressed their grief; the
Nymphs, too, seem to be weeping, and to mourn their springs dried up.
Without foliage the bared tree runs straight up; the goats are gnawing
the dried stones. Lo! he represents the daughters of Orion in the middle
of Thebes; the one, as presenting her breast, more than woman’s, with
her bared throat; the other, thrusting a sword in her valorous wounds,
as dying for her people, and as being borne, with an honoured funeral,
through the city, and as being burnt in a conspicuous part {of it};
{and} then from the virgin embers, lest the race should fail, twin
youths arising, whom Fame calls ‘Coronæ,’[62] and for their mothers’
ashes leading the {funeral} procession.

Thus far for the figures that shine on the ancient brass; the summit of
the goblet is rough with gilded acanthus. Nor do the Trojans return
gifts of less value than those given; and to the priest they give an
incense-box, to keep the frankincense; they give a bowl, {too}, and a
crown, brilliant with gold and gems. Then recollecting that the
{Trojans}, {as} Teucrians, derived their origin from the blood of
Teucer, they make for Crete, and cannot long endure the air of that
place;[63] and, having left behind the hundred cities, they desire to
reach the Ausonian harbours. A storm rages, and tosses the men to and
fro; and winged Aëllo frightens them, when received in the unsafe
harbours of the Strophades.[64] And now, borne along, they have passed
the Dulichian harbours, and Ithaca, and Same,[65] and the Neritian
abodes, the kingdom of the deceitful Ulysses; and they behold
Ambracia,[66] contended for in a dispute of the Deities, which now is
renowned for the Actian Apollo,[67] and the stone in the shape of the
transformed judge, and the land of Dodona, vocal with its oaks; and the
Chaonian bays, where the sons of the Molossian king escaped the
unavailing flames, with wings attached {to them}.

    [Footnote 57: _Antandros._--Ver. 628. This was a city of Phrygia,
    at the foot of Mount Ida, where the fleet of Æneas was built.]

    [Footnote 58: _Trees once grasped._--Ver. 635. These were a palm
    and an olive tree, which were pointed out by the people of Delos,
    as having been held by Latona, when in the pangs of labour.]

    [Footnote 59: _Of slain oxen._--Ver. 637. This, however, was
    contrary to the usual practice; for if we credit Macrobius, no
    victim was slain on the altars of Apollo, in the island of Delos.]

    [Footnote 60: _Of thy consort._--Ver. 673. It must be remembered,
    that he is addressing Anchises, who was said to have enjoyed the
    favour of Venus; to which Goddess the dove was consecrated.]

    [Footnote 61: _In place of._--Ver. 686. For the seven gates, would
    at once lead to the conclusion that it represented the city of
    Thebes, in Bœotia. Myla, before referred to, was a town of
    Sicily.]

    [Footnote 62: _Calls ‘Coronæ’._--Ver. 698. The word ‘Coronas’ is
    here employed as the plural of a female name ‘Corona;’ in Greek
    Κώρωνις.]

    [Footnote 63: _Of that place._--Ver. 707. Æneas and his followers
    founded in Crete the city of Pergamea; but the pestilence which
    raged there, and a continued drought, combined with the density of
    the atmosphere, obliged them to leave the island.]

    [Footnote 64: _The Strophades._--Ver. 709. These were two islands
    in the Ionian Sea, on the western side of Peloponnesus. They
    received their name from the Greek work στροφὴ, ‘a return,’
    because Calais and Zethes pursued the Harpies, which persecuted
    Phineus so far, and then returned home by the command of Jupiter.]

    [Footnote 65: _Same._--Ver. 711. This island was also called
    Cephalenia. It was in the Ionian Sea, and formed part of the
    kingdom of Ulysses.]

    [Footnote 66: _Ambracia._--Ver. 714. This was a famous city of
    Epirus, which gave its name to the gulf of Ambracia.]

    [Footnote 67: _Actian Apollo._--Ver. 715. Augustus built a temple
    to Apollo, at Actium, in Epirus, near which he had defeated the
    fleet of Antony and Cleopatra. He also instituted games, to be
    celebrated there every fifth year in honour of his victory.]


EXPLANATION.

  Virgil describes Anius as the king of Delos, and the priest of
  Apollo at the same time. ‘Rex Anius, rex idem hominum Phœbique
  sacerdos.’ Æneid, Book III. He was descended from Cadmus, through
  his mother Rhea, the daughter of Staphilus. Having engaged in some
  intrigue, as Diodorus Siculus conjectures, her father exposed her on
  the sea in an open boat, which drove to Delos, and she was there
  delivered of Anius, who afterwards became the king of the island. By
  his wife Dorippe he had three daughters, who were extremely frugal,
  and by means of the offerings and presents that were brought to the
  temple of Apollo, amassed a large store of provisions. During the
  siege of Troy, the Greeks sent Palamedes to Delos, to demand food
  for the army; and, as a security for his compliance with these
  demands, they exacted the daughters of Anius as hostages. The
  damsels soon afterwards finding means to escape, it was said that
  Bacchus, who was their kinsman through Cadmus, had transformed them
  into doves. Probably the story of their transforming every thing
  they touched, into wine, corn, and oil, was founded solely on their
  thriftiness and parsimony. Bochart, however, explains the story from
  the circumstance of their names being, as he conjectures, Oëno,
  Spermo, and Elaï, which, in the old Phœnician dialect, signified
  wine, corn, and oil; and he thinks that the story was confirmed in
  general belief by the fact that large quantities of corn, wine, and
  oil were supplied from Delos to the Grecian army when before Troy.

  In the reign of Orion, Thebes being devastated by a plague, the
  oracles were consulted, and the Thebans were told that the contagion
  would cease as soon as the daughters of the king should be
  sacrificed to the wrath of heaven. The two maidens immediately
  presented themselves at the altar; and on their immolation, the Gods
  were appeased, and the plague ceased. This example of patriotism and
  fortitude filled the more youthful Thebans with so much emulation,
  that they shook off their former inactivity, and soon became
  conspicuous for their bravery: which sudden change gave occasion to
  the saying, that the ashes of these maidens had been transformed
  into men.

  The Poet follows Æneas on his voyage, to gain an opportunity of
  referring to several other current stories. Among other places, he
  passes the city of Ambracia, about which the Gods had contended, and
  sees the rock into which the umpire of their dispute, who had
  decided in favour of Hercules, was changed. Ambracia was on the
  coast of Epirus, and gave its name to an adjacent inlet of the sea,
  called the Ambracian Gulf. Antoninus Liberalis tells us, on the
  authority of Nicander, that Apollo, Diana, and Hercules disputed
  about this city, and left the decision to Cragaleus, who gave it in
  favour of Hercules; on which, Apollo transformed him into a rock.
  Very possibly the meaning of this may be, that when the people of
  Ambracia were considering to which of these Deities they should
  dedicate their city, Cragaleus preferred Hercules to the other two,
  or, in other words, the feats of war to the cultivation of the arts
  and sciences. Apollo was said to have turned him into a stone,
  either because he met with his death near the promontory where a
  temple of Apollo stood, or to show the stupidity of his decision.
  Antoninus Liberalis is the only writer besides Ovid that makes
  mention of the adventure of the sons of the Molossian king; he tells
  us that Munychus, king of the Molossi, had three sons, Alcander,
  Megaletor, and Philæus, and a daughter named Hyperippe. Some robbers
  setting fire to their father’s house, they were transformed by
  Jupiter into birds. This, in all probability, is a poetical way of
  saying that the youths escaped from the flames, contrary to
  universal expectation.

  The opinions of writers have been very conflicting as to the origin
  of the oracle of Dodona. Silius Italicus says that two pigeons flew
  from Thebes in Egypt, one of which went to Libya, and occasioned the
  founding of the oracle of Jupiter Ammon; while the other settled
  upon an oak in Chaonia, and signified thereby to the inhabitants,
  that it was the will of heaven that there should be an oracle in
  that place. Herodotus says that two priestesses of Egyptian Thebes
  being carried off by some Phœnician merchants, one of them was sold
  to the Greeks, after which she settled in the forest of Dodona,
  where a little chapel was founded by her in honour of Jupiter, in
  which she gave responses. He adds, that they called her ‘the dove,’
  because being a foreigner they did not understand her language. At
  length, having learned the language of the Pelasgians, it was said
  that the dove had spoken. On that foundation grew the tradition that
  the oaks themselves uttered oracular responses.

  Notwithstanding this plausible account of Herodotus, it is not
  impossible that some equivocal expressions in the Hebrew and Arabian
  languages may have given rise to the story. ‘Himan,’ in the one
  language, signified ‘a priest;’ and ‘Heman,’ in the other, was the
  name for ‘a pigeon.’ Possibly those who found the former word in the
  history of ancient Greece, written in the dialect of the original
  Phœnician settlers, did not understand it, and by their mistake,
  caused it to be asserted that a dove had founded the oracle of
  Dodona. Bochart tells us that the same word, in the Phœnician
  tongue, signifies either ‘pigeons,’ or ‘women;’ but the Abbè Sallier
  has gone still further, and has shown that, in the language of the
  ancient inhabitants of Epirus, the same word had the two
  significations mentioned by Bochart.

  This oracle afterwards grew famous for its responses, and the
  priests used considerable ingenuity in the delivery of their
  answers. They cautiously kept all who came to consult them at a
  distance from the dark recess where the shrine was situated; and
  took care to deliver their responses in a manner so ambiguous, as to
  make people believe whatever they pleased. In this circumstance
  originates the variation in the descriptions of the oracle which the
  ancients have left us. According to some, it was the oaks that
  spoke; according to others, the beeches; while a third account was
  that pigeons gave the answers; and, lastly, it was said that the
  ringing of certain cauldrons there suspended, divulged the will of
  heaven. Stephanus Byzantinus has left a curious account of this
  contrivance of the cauldrons; he says that in that part of the
  forest of Dodona, where the oracle stood, there were two pillars
  erected, at a small distance from each other. On one there was
  placed a brazen vessel, about the size of an ordinary cauldron: and
  on the other a little boy, which was most probably a piece of
  mechanism, who held a brazen whip with several thongs which hung
  loose, and were easily moved. When the wind blew, the lashes struck
  against the vessel, and occasioned a noise while the wind continued.
  It was from them, he says, that the forest took the name of Dodona;
  ‘dodo,’ in the ancient language, signifying ‘a cauldron.’

  Strabo says that the responses were originally given by three
  priestesses: and he gives the reason why two priests were afterwards
  added to them. The Bœotians having been treacherously attacked by
  the people of Thrace during a truce which they had made, went to
  consult the oracle of Dodona; and the priestess answering them that
  if they would act impiously their design would succeed to their
  wish, the envoys suspected that this response had been suggested by
  the enemy, and burned her in revenge; after which they vindicated
  their cruelty by saying that if the priestess designed to deceive
  them, she well deserved her punishment; and that if she spoke with
  truthfulness, they had only followed the advice of the oracle. This
  argument not satisfying the people of the district, the Bœotian
  envoys were seized; but as they pleaded that it was unjust that two
  women already prejudiced against them should be their judges, two
  priests were added to decide the matter. These, in return for their
  being the occasion of putting them in an office so honourable and
  lucrative, acquitted the Bœotians; whose fellow countrymen were
  always in the habit from that time of addressing the priests when
  they consulted the oracle. These priests were called by the name of
  ‘Selli.’


FABLE VII. [XIII.719-897]

  Polyphemus, one of the Cyclops, jealous of Acis, who is in love with
  Galatea, kills the youth with a rock which he hurls at him; on
  which, his blood is changed into a river which bears his name.

They make for the neighbouring land of the Phæacians,[68] planted with
beauteous fruit. After this, Epirus and Buthrotos,[69] ruled over by the
Phrygian prophet, and a fictitious Troy, are reached. Thence, acquainted
with the future, all which, Helenus, the son of Priam, in his faithful
instructions has forewarned them of, they enter Sicania. With three
points this projects into the sea. Of these, Pachynos is turned towards
the showery South: Lilybæum is exposed to the soft Zephyrs: but Peloros
looks towards the Bear, free from the sea, and towards Boreas. By this
{part} the Trojans enter; and with oars and favouring tide, at nightfall
the fleet makes the Zanclæan sands. Scylla infests the right hand side,
the restless Charybdis the left. This swallows and vomits forth again
ships taken down; the other, having the face of a maiden, has her
swarthy stomach surrounded with fierce dogs; and (if the poets have not
left the whole a fiction) once on a time, too, {she was} a maiden. Many
suitors courted her; who being repulsed, she, most beloved by the Nymphs
of the ocean, went to the ocean Nymphs, and used to relate the eluded
loves of the youths.

While Galatea[70] was giving her hair be to combed, heaving sighs, she
addressed her in such words as these: “{And} yet, O maiden, no ungentle
race of men does woo thee; and as thou dost, thou art able to deny them
with impunity. But I, whose sire is Nereus, whom the azure Doris bore,
who am guarded, too, by a crowd of sisters, was not able, but through
the waves, to escape the passion of the Cyclop;” and as she spoke, the
tears choked her utterance. When, with her fingers like marble, the
maiden had wiped these away, and had comforted the Goddess, “Tell me,
dearest,” said she, “and conceal not {from me} ({for} I am true to thee)
the cause of thy grief.” In these words did the Nereid reply to the
daughter of Cratæis:[71] “Acis was the son of Faunus and of the Nymph
Symæthis, a great delight, indeed, to his father and his mother, yet a
still greater to me. For the charming {youth} had attached me to himself
alone, and eight birth-days having a second time been passed, he had
{now} marked his tender cheeks with the dubious down. Him I {pursued};
incessantly did the Cyclop me pursue. Nor can I, shouldst thou enquire,
declare whether the hatred of the Cylops, or the love of Acis, was the
stronger in me. They were equal. O genial Venus! how great is the power
of thy sway. For that savage, and one to be dreaded by the very woods,
and beheld with impunity by no stranger, the contemner of great Olympus
with the Gods {themselves}, {now} feels what love is; and, captivated
with passion for me, he burns, forgetting his cattle and his caves.

“And now, Polyphemus, thou hast a care for thy looks, and now for {the
art of} pleasing; now thou combest out thy stiffened hair with rakes,
{and} now it pleases thee to cut thy shaggy beard with the sickle, and
to look at thy fierce features in the water, and {so} to compose them.
Thy love for carnage, and thy fierceness, and thy insatiate thirst for
blood, {now} cease; and the ships both come and go in safety. Telemus,
in the mean time arriving at the Sicilian Ætna, Telemus, the son of
Eurymus, whom no omen had {ever} deceived, accosts the dreadful
Polyphemus, and says, ‘The single eye that thou dost carry in the midst
of thy forehead, Ulysses shall take away from thee.’ He laughed, and
said, ‘O most silly of the prophets, thou art mistaken, {for} another
has already taken it away.’ Thus does he slight him, in vain warning him
of the truth; and he either burdens the shore, stalking along with huge
strides, or, wearied, he returns to his shaded cave.

“A hill, in form of a wedge, runs out with a long projection into the
sea: {and} the waves of the ocean flow round either side. Hither the
fierce Cyclop ascended, and sat down in the middle. His woolly flocks
followed, there being no one to guide them. After the pine tree,[72]
which afforded him the service of a staff, {but more} fitted for
sail-yards, was laid before his feet, and his pipe was taken up, formed
of a hundred reeds; all the mountains were sensible of the piping of the
shepherd: the waves, {too}, were sensible. I, lying hid within a rock,
and reclining on the bosom of my own Acis, from afar caught such words
as these with my ears, and marked them {so} heard in my mind:
‘O Galatea, fairer than[73] the leaf of the snow-white privet,[74] more
blooming than the meadows, more slender than the tall alder, brighter
than glass, more wanton than the tender kid, smoother than the shells
worn by continual floods, more pleasing than the winter’s sun, {or} than
the summer’s shade, more beauteous than the apples, more sightly than
the lofty plane tree, clearer than ice, sweeter than the ripened grape,
softer than both the down of the swan, and than curdled milk, and, didst
thou not fly me, more beauteous than a watered garden. {And yet} thou,
the same Galatea, {art} wilder than the untamed bullocks, harder than
the aged oak, more unstable than the waters, tougher than both the twigs
of osier and than the white vines, more immoveable than these rocks,
more violent than the torrent, prouder than the bepraised peacock,
fiercer than the fire, rougher than the thistles, more cruel than the
pregnant she-bear, more deaf than the ocean waves, more savage than the
trodden water-snake: and, what I could especially wish to deprive thee
of, fleeter not only than the deer when pursued by the loud barkings,
but even than the winds and the fleeting air.

“‘But didst thou {but} know me well, thou wouldst repine at having fled,
and thou thyself wouldst blame thy own hesitation, and wouldst strive to
retain me. I have a part of the mountain for my cave, pendent with the
native rock; in which the sun is not felt in the middle of the heat, nor
is the winter felt: there are apples that load the boughs; there are
grapes on the lengthening vines, resembling gold; and there are purple
ones {as well}; both the one and the other do I reserve for thee. With
thine own hands thou shalt thyself gather the soft strawberries growing
beneath the woodland shade; thou thyself {shalt pluck} the cornels of
autumn, and plums not only darkened with their black juice, but even of
the choicest kinds, and resembling new wax. Nor, I being thy husband,
will there be wanting to thee chesnuts, nor the fruit of the arbute
tree:[75] every tree shall be at thy service. All this cattle is my own:
many, too, are wandering in the valleys: many the wood conceals: many
{more} are penned in my caves. Nor, shouldst thou ask me perchance,
could I tell thee, how many there are; ’tis for the poor man to count
his cattle. For the praises of these trust not me at all; in person thou
thyself mayst see how they can hardly support with their legs their
distended udders. Lambs, too, a smaller breed, are in the warm folds:
there are kids, too, of equal age {to them} in other folds. Snow-white
milk I always have: a part of it is kept for drinking, {another} part
the liquified rennet hardens. Nor will common delights, and ordinary
enjoyments alone fall to thy lot, {such as} does, and hares, and
she-goats, or a pair of doves, or a nest taken from the tree top. I have
found on the mountain summit the twin cubs of a shaggy she-bear, which
can play with thee, so like each other that thou couldst scarce
distinguish them. {These} I found, and I said, ‘These for my mistress
will I keep.’

“‘Do now but raise thy beauteous head from out of the azure sea; now,
Galatea, come, and do not scorn my presents. Surely I know myself, and
myself but lately I beheld in the reflection of the limpid water; and my
figure[76] pleased me as I saw it. See how huge I am. Not Jove, in
heaven, is greater than this body; for thou art wont to tell how one
Jupiter reigns, who he is I know not. Plenty of hair hangs over my
grisly features, and, like a grove, overshadows my shoulders; nor think
it uncomely that my body is rough, thick set with stiff bristles. A tree
without leaves is unseemly; a horse is unseemly, unless a mane covers
his tawny neck. Feathers cover the birds; their wool is an ornament to
the sheep; a beard and rough hair upon their body is becoming to men.
I have but one eye in the middle of my forehead, but it is like a large
buckler. Well! and does not the Sun from the heavens behold all these
things? and yet the Sun has but one eye. And, besides, in your seas does
my father reign. Him do I offer thee for a father-in-law; only do take
pity on a suppliant, and hear his prayer, for to thee alone do I give
way. And I, who despise Jove, and the heavens, and the piercing
lightnings, dread thee, daughter of Nereus; than the lightnings is thy
wrath more dreadful to me. But I should be more patient under these
slights, if thou didst avoid all men. For why, rejecting the Cyclop,
dost thou love Acis? And why prefer Acis to my embraces? Yet, let him
please himself, and let him please thee, too, Galatea, {though} I wish
he could not; if only the opportunity is given, he shall find that I
have strength proportioned to a body so vast. I will pull out his
palpitating entrails; and I will scatter his torn limbs about the
fields, and throughout thy waves, {and} thus let him be united to thee.
For I burn: and my passion, {thus} slighted, rages with the greater
fury; and I seem to be carrying in my breast Ætna, transferred there
with {all} its flames; and yet, Galatea, thou art unmoved.’

“Having in vain uttered such complaints (for all this I saw), he rises;
and like an enraged bull, when the heifer is taken away from him, he
could not stand still, and he wandered in the wood, and the well known
forests. When the savage {monster} espied me, and Acis unsuspecting and
apprehensive of no such thing; and he exclaimed:-- ‘I see you, and I
shall cause this to be the last union for your affection.’ And that
voice was as loud as an enraged Cyclop ought, {for his size}, to have.
Ætna trembled at the noise; but I, struck with horror, plunged into the
adjoining sea. The hero, son of Symæthis, turned his back and fled, and
cried,-- ‘Help me, Galatea, I entreat thee; help me, ye parents {of
hers}; and admit me, {now} on the point of destruction, within your
realms.’ The Cyclop pursued, and hurled a fragment, torn from the
mountain; and though the extreme angle only of the rock reached him, yet
it entirely crushed Acis. But I did the only thing that was allowed by
the Fates to be done, that Acis might assume the properties of his
grandsire. The purple blood flowed from beneath the rock, and in a
little time the redness began to vanish; and at first it became the
colour of a stream muddied by a shower; and, in time, it became clear.
Then the rock, that had been thrown, opened, and through the chinks,
a reed vigorous and stately arose, and the hollow mouth of the rock
resounded with the waters gushing forth. And, wondrous event! a youth
suddenly emerged, as far as the midriff, having his new-made horns
encircled with twining reeds. And he, but that he was of larger stature,
and azure in all his features, was Acis {still}. But, even then, still
it was Acis, changed into a river; and the stream has since retained
that ancient name.”

    [Footnote 68: _The Phæacians._--Ver. 719. The Phæacians were the
    people of the Island of Corcyra (now Corfu), who were so called
    from Phæax, the son of Neptune. This island was famous for the
    gardens of Alcinoüs, which are mentioned in the Odyssey. The
    Corcyrans were the originators of the disastrous Peloponnesian
    war.]

    [Footnote 69: _Buthrotos._--Ver. 721. This was a city of Epirus,
    not far from Corcyra. It received its name from its founder.]

    [Footnote 70: _Galatea._--Ver. 738. She was a sea Nymph, the
    daughter of Nereus and Doris.]

    [Footnote 71: _Daughter of Cratæis._--Ver. 749. Cratæis was a
    river of Calabria, in Italy. Symæthis was a stream of Sicily,
    opposite to Calabria.]

    [Footnote 72: _The pine tree._--Ver. 782. By way of corroborating
    this assertion, Boccaccio tells us, that the body of Polyphemus
    was found in Sicily, his left hand grasping a walking-stick longer
    than the mast of a ship.]

    [Footnote 73: _Fairer than._--Ver. 789. This song of Polyphemus
    is, in some measure, imitated from that of the Cyclop, in the
    Eleventh Idyll of Theocritus.]

    [Footnote 74: _Snow-white privet._--Ver. 789. Hesiod says, that
    Galatea had her name from her extreme fairness; γάλα being the
    Greek word for milk. To this the Poet here alludes.]

    [Footnote 75: _Arbute tree._--Ver. 820. The fruit of the arbutus,
    or strawberry tree, were so extremely sour, that they were called,
    as Pliny the Elder tells us, ‘unedones;’ because people could not
    eat more than one. The tree itself was valued for the beauty and
    pleasing shade of its foliage.]

    [Footnote 76: _My figure._--Ver. 841. Virgil and Theocritus also
    represent Polyphemus as boasting of his good looks.]


EXPLANATION.

  Homer, who, in the ninth Book of the Odyssey, has entered fully into
  the subject of Polyphemus and the other Cyclops, does not recount
  this adventure, which Ovid has borrowed from Theocritus, the
  Sicilian poet. Some writers have suggested that Acis was a Sicilian
  youth, who, having met with a repulse from Galatea, threw himself
  into the river, which was afterwards called by his name. It is,
  however, more probable that this river was so called from the
  rapidity of its course. Indeed, the scholiast on Theocritus and
  Eustathius distinctly say that the stream was called Acis, because
  the swiftness of its course resembled that of an arrow, which was
  called ἀκὶς, in the Greek language.

  Homer, in describing the Cyclops, informs us that they were a
  lawless race, who, neglecting husbandry, lived on the spontaneous
  produce of a rich soil, and dwelling in mountain caves, devoted
  themselves entirely to the pleasures of a pastoral life. He says
  that they were men of monstrous stature, and had but one eye, in the
  middle of their forehead. Thucydides supposes them to have been the
  original inhabitants of Sicily. As their origin was unknown, it was
  said that they were the offspring of Neptune, or, in other words,
  that they had come by sea, to settle in Sicily. According to Justin,
  they retained possession of the island till the time of Cocalus; but
  in that point he disagrees with Homer, who represents them as being
  in the island after the time of Cocalus, who was a contemporary of
  Minos, and lived long before the Trojan war.

  They inhabited the western parts of Sicily, near the promontories of
  Lilybæum and Drepanum; and from that circumstance, according to
  Bochart, they received their name. He supposes that the Cyclopes
  were so called from the Phœnician compound word Chek-lub, contracted
  for Chek-le-lub, which, according to him, was the name of the Gulf
  of Lilybæum. Because, in the Greek language κυκλὸς signified ‘a
  circle,’ and ὤπς, ‘an eye,’ it was given out that the name of
  Cyclops was given to them, because they had but one round eye in the
  middle of the forehead. It is possible that they may have acquired
  their character of being cannibals on true grounds, or, perhaps,
  only because they were noted for their extreme cruelty. Living near
  the volcanic mountain of Ætna, they were called the workmen of
  Vulcan; and Virgil describes them as forging the thunderbolts of
  Jupiter. Some writers represent them as having armed the three
  Deities, who divided the empire of the world: Jupiter with thunder;
  Pluto with his helmet; and Neptune with his trident. Statius
  represents them as the builders of the walls of Argos and Virgil as
  the founders of the gates of the Elysian fields. Aristotle supposes
  that they were the first builders of towers.

  Diodorus Siculus and Tzetzes say that Polyphemus was king of a part
  of Sicily, when Ulysses landed there; who, falling in love with
  Elpe, the daughter of the king, carried her off. The Læstrygons, the
  neighbours of Polyphemus, pursued him, and obliged him to give up
  the damsel, who was brought back to her father. Ulysses, in relating
  the story to the Phæacians, artfully concealed circumstances so
  little to his credit, and with impunity invented the absurdities
  which he related concerning a country to which his audience were
  utter strangers.


FABLE VIII. [XIII.898-968]

  Glaucus having observed some fishes which he has laid upon the grass
  revive and leap again into the water, is desirous to try the
  influence of the grass on himself. Putting some of it into his
  mouth, he immediately becomes mad, and leaping into the sea, is
  transformed into a sea God.

Galatea ceases[77] speaking, and the company breaking up, they depart;
and the Nereids swim in the becalmed waves. Scylla returns, (for, in
truth, she does not trust herself in the midst of the ocean) and either
wanders about without garments on the thirsty sand, or, when she is
tired, having lighted upon some lonely recess of the sea, cools her
limbs in the enclosed waves. {When}, lo! cleaving the deep, Glaucus
comes, a new-made inhabitant of the deep sea, his limbs having been
lately transformed at Anthedon,[78] near Eubœa; and he lingers from
passion for the maiden {now} seen, and utters whatever words he thinks
may detain her as she flies. Yet still she flies, and, swift through
fear, she arrives at the top of a mountain, situate near the shore.

In front of the sea, there is a huge ridge, terminating in one summit,
bending for a long distance over the waves, {and} without trees. Here
she stands, and secured by the place, ignorant whether he is a monster
or a God, she both admires his colour, and his flowing hair that covers
his shoulders and his back, and how a wreathed fish closes the extremity
of his groin. {This} he perceives; and leaning upon a rock that stands
hard by, he says, “Maiden, I am no monster, no savage beast; I am a God
of the waters: nor have Proteus, and Triton, and Palæmon, the son of
Athamas, a more uncontrolled reign over the deep. Yet formerly I was a
mortal; but, still, devoted to the deep sea, even then was I employed in
it. For, at one time, I used to drag the nets that swept up the fish;
at another time, seated on a rock, I managed the line with the rod. The
shore was adjacent to a verdant meadow, one part of which was surrounded
with water, the other with grass, which, neither the horned heifers had
hurt with their browsing, nor had you, ye harmless sheep, nor {you}, ye
shaggy goats, {ever} cropped it. No industrious bee took {thence} the
collected blossoms, no festive garlands were gathered thence for the
head; and no mower’s hands had ever cut it. I was the first to be seated
on that turf, while I was drying the dripping nets. And that I might
count in their order the fish that I had taken; I laid out those upon it
which either chance had driven to my nets, or their own credulity to my
barbed hooks.

“The thing is like a fiction (but of what use is it to me to coin
fictions?); on touching the grass my prey began to move, and to shift
their sides, and to skip about on the land, as though in the sea. And
while I both paused and wondered, the whole batch flew off to the waves,
and left behind their new master and the shore. I was amazed, and, in
doubt for a long time, I considered what could be the cause; whether
some Divinity had done this, or whether the juice of {some} herb. ‘And
yet,’ said I, ‘what herb has these properties?’ and with my hand I
plucked the grass, and I chewed it, {so} plucked, with my teeth. Hardly
had my throat well swallowed the unknown juices, when I suddenly felt my
entrails inwardly throb, and my mind taken possession of by the passions
of another nature. Nor could I stay in {that} place; and I exclaimed,
‘Farewell, land, never more to be revisited;’ and plunged my body
beneath the deep. The Gods of the sea vouchsafed me, on being received
by them, kindred honours, and they entreated Oceanus and Tethys to take
away from me whatever mortality I bore. By them was I purified; and a
charm being repeated over me nine times, that washes away {all} guilt,
I was commanded to put my breast beneath a hundred streams.

“There was no delay; rivers issuing from different springs, and whole
seas, were poured over my head. Thus far I can relate to thee what
happened worthy to be related, and thus far do I remember; but my
understanding was not conscious of the rest. When it returned {to me},
I found myself different throughout all my body from what I was before,
and not the same in mind. Then, for the first time, did I behold this
beard, green with its deep colour, and my flowing hair, which I sweep
along the spacious seas, and my huge shoulders, and my azurecoloured
arms, and the extremities of my legs tapering in {the form of} a finny
fish. But still, what does this form avail me, what to have pleased the
ocean Deities, {and} what to be a God, if thou art not moved by these
things?”

As he was saying such things as these, and about to say still more,
Scylla left the God. He was enraged, and, provoked at the repulse, he
repaired to the marvellous court of Circe, the daughter of Titan.

    [Footnote 77: _Ceases._--Ver. 898. ‘Desierat Galatea loqui,’ is
    translated by Clarke, ‘Galatea gave over talking.’]

    [Footnote 78: _Anthedon._--Ver. 905. Anthedon was a maritime city
    of Bœotia, only separated from the Island of Eubœa, by the narrow
    strait of the Euripus.]


EXPLANATION.

  The ancient writers mention three persons of the name of Glaucus:
  one was the son of Minos, the second of Hippolochus, and the third
  is the one here mentioned. Strabo calls him the son of Polybus,
  while other writers make him to have been the son of Phorbas, and
  others of Neptune. Being drowned, perhaps by accident, to do honour
  to his memory, it was promulgated that he had become a sea God, and
  the city of Anthedon, of which he was a native, worshipped him as
  such.

  Athenæus says that he carried off Ariadne from the isle of Naxos,
  where Theseus had left her; on which Bacchus punished him by binding
  him to a vine. According to Diodorus Siculus, he appeared to the
  Argonauts, when overtaken by a storm. From Apollonius Rhodius we
  learn that he foretold to them that Hercules, and Castor and Pollux,
  would be received into the number of the Gods. It was also said,
  that in the battle which took place between Jason and the
  Tyrrhenians, he was the only person that escaped unwounded.
  Euripides, who is followed by Pausanias, says that he was the
  interpreter of Nereus, and was skilled in prophecy; and Nicander
  even says that it was from him that Apollo learned the art of
  prediction. Strabo and Philostratus say that he was metamorphosed
  into a Triton, which is a-kin to the description of his appearance
  here given by Ovid.

  The place where he leaped into the sea was long remembered; and in
  the days of Pausanias ‘Glaucus’ Leap’ was still pointed out by the
  people of Anthedon. It is not improbable that he drowned himself for
  some reason which tradition failed to hand down to posterity.