Metamorphoses

FABLE I. [VII.1-158]

  Jason, after having met with various adventures, arrives with the
  Argonauts in Colchis, and demands the Golden Fleece. Medea falls in
  love with Jason, and by the power of her enchantments preserves him
  from the dangers he has to encounter in obtaining it. He obtains the
  prize, and carrying off Medea, returns in triumph to Thessaly.

And now the Minyæ[1] were ploughing the sea in the Pagasæan ship;[2] and
Phineus prolonging a needy old age under perpetual night, had been
visited, and the youthful sons of the North wind had driven the birds
with the faces of virgins from {before} the mouth of the distressed old
man;[3] and having suffered many things under the famous Jason, had
reached at length the rapid waters of the muddy Phasis.

And while they go to the king, and ask the fleece that once belonged to
Phryxus, and conditions are offered them, dreadful for the number of
mighty labors; in the meantime, the daughter of Æetes[4] conceives a
violent flame; and having long struggled {against it}, after she is
unable to conquer her frenzy by reason, she says: “In vain, Medea, dost
thou resist; some God, who, I know not, is opposing thee. It is a wonder
too, if it is not this, or at least something like this, which is called
‘love.’ For why do the commands of my father appear too rigid for me?
and yet too rigid they are. Why am I in dread, lest he whom I have seen
{but} so lately, should perish? What is the cause of alarm so great?
Banish the flames conceived in thy virgin breast, if thou canst, unhappy
{creature}. If I could, I would be more rational. But a new power draws
me on, against my will; and Cupid persuades one thing, reason another.
I see which is the more proper {course}, and I approve of it, {while} I
follow the wrong one. Why, royal maiden, art thou burning for a
stranger, and why coveting the nuptial ties of a strange country? This
land, too, may give thee something which thou mayst love. Whether he
shall live, or whether die, is in {the disposal of} the Gods. Yet he may
survive; and that I may pray for, even without love. For what {fault}
has Jason committed? Whom, but one of hard heart, would not the
{youthful} age of Jason affect? his descent too, and his valor? Whom,
though these other points were wanting, would not his beauty move? at
least, he has moved my breast. But unless I shall give him aid, he will
be breathed upon by the mouths of the bulls; and will engage with his
own {kindred} crops, an enemy sprung from the earth; or he will be given
as a cruel prey to the ravenous dragon. If I allow this, then I will
confess that I was born of a tigress; then, {too}, that I carry steel
and stone in my heart. Why do I not as well behold him perish? Why not,
too, profane my eyes by seeing it? Why do I not stimulate the bulls
against him, and the fierce sons of the earth, and the never-sleeping
dragon? May the Gods award better things. And yet these things are not
to be prayed for, but must be effected by myself. Shall I {then} betray
the kingdom of my father? and by my aid shall some stranger, I know not
who, be saved; that being delivered by my means, he may spread his sails
to the winds without me, and be the husband of another; and I, Medea, be
left for punishment? If he can do this, and if he is capable of
preferring another to me, let him perish in his ingratitude. But not
such is his countenance, not such that nobleness of soul, that
gracefulness of person, that I should fear treachery, and forgetfulness
of what I deserve. Besides, he shall first pledge his faith, and I will
oblige the Gods to be witnesses of our compact. What then dost thou
dread, {thus} secure? Haste {then},[5] and banish {all} delay. Jason
will ever be indebted to thee for his preservation; thee will he unite
to himself in the rites of marriage, and throughout the Pelasgian
cities[6] thou wilt be celebrated by crowds of matrons, as the preserver
{of their sons}. And shall I then, borne away by the winds, leave my
sister[7] and my brother,[8] and my father, and my Gods, and my native
soil? My father is cruel, forsooth; my country, too, is barbarous;[9] my
brother is still {but} an infant; the wishes of my sister are in my
favor. The greatest of the Gods is in possession of me. I shall not be
relinquishing anything great; I shall be pursuing what is great; the
credit of saving the youth of Greece,[10] acquaintance with a better
country, and cities, whose fame is flourishing even here, and the
politeness and the arts of their inhabitants; and the son of Æson, whom
I could be ready to take in exchange for {all} the things that the whole
world contains; with whom for my husband I shall both be deemed dear to
the Gods, and shall reach the stars with my head. Why say that I know
not what mountains[11] are reported to arise in the midst of the waves,
and that Charybdis, an enemy to ships, one while sucks in the sea, at
another discharges it; and how that Scylla, begirt with furious dogs, is
said to bark in the Sicilian deep? Yet holding him whom I love, and
clinging to the bosom of Jason, I shall be borne over the wide seas;
embracing him, naught will I dread; or if I fear anything, for my
husband alone will I fear. And dost thou, Medea, call this a marriage,
and dost thou give a plausible name to thy criminality? Do but consider
how great an offence thou art meditating, and, while {still} thou mayst,
fly from guilt.”

{Thus} she said, and before her eyes stood Virtue, Affection, and
Modesty; and now Cupid turned his vanquished back. She was going to the
ancient altars of Hecate,[12] the daughter of Perses, which a shady
grove and the recesses of a wood concealed. And now she was resolved,
and her passion being checked, had subsided; when she beheld the son of
Æson, and the extinguished flame revived. Her cheeks were covered with
blushes, and her whole face was suffused with a glow. As a spark is wont
to derive nourishment from the winds, which, but small when it lay
concealed beneath the ashes cast over it, {is wont} to increase, and
aroused, to rise again to its original strength, so her love, now
declining, which you would suppose was now growing languid, when she
beheld the youth, was rekindled with the appearance of him before her
eyes. And by chance, on that day, the son of Æson was more beauteous
than usual. You might forgive her loving him. She gazes; and keeps her
eyes fixed upon his countenance, as though but now seen for the first
time; and in her frenzy she thinks she does not behold the face of a
mortal; nor does she turn away from him. But when the stranger began to
speak, and seized her right hand, and begged her assistance with a
humble voice, and promised her marriage; she said, with tears running
down, “I see what I ought to do; and it will not be ignorance of the
truth, but love that beguiles me. By my agency thou shalt be saved; when
saved, grant what thou hast promised.”

He swears by the rites of the Goddess of the triple form, and the Deity
which is in that grove, and by the sire[13] of his future father-in-law,
who beholds all things, and by his own adventures, and by dangers so
great. Being believed {by her}, he immediately received some enchanted
herbs, and thoroughly learned the use of them, and went away rejoicing
to his abode. The next morning had {now} dispersed the twinkling stars,
{when} the people repaired to the sacred field of Mavors, and ranged
themselves on the hills. In the midst of the assembly sat the king
himself, arrayed in purple, and distinguished by a sceptre of ivory.
Behold! the brazen-footed bulls breathe forth flames[14] from their
adamantine nostrils; and the grass touched by the vapors is on fire. And
as the forges filled {with fire} are wont to roar, or when flints[15]
dissolved in an earthen furnace receive intense heat by the sprinkling
of flowing water; so do their breasts rolling forth the flames enclosed
within, and their scorched throats, resound. Yet the son of Æson goes
forth to meet them. The fierce {bulls} turn their terrible features, and
their horns pointed with iron, towards his face as he advances, and with
cloven hoofs they spurn the dusty ground, and fill the place with
lowings, that send forth clouds of smoke. The Minyæ are frozen with
horror. He comes up, and feels not the flames breathed forth by them, so
great is the power of the incantations. He even strokes their hanging
dewlaps with a bold right hand, and, subjected to the yoke, he obliges
them to draw the heavy weight of a plough, and to turn up with the share
the plain {till now} unused to it.[16]

The Colchians are astonished; the Minyæ fill {the air} with their
shouts, and give him {fresh} courage. Then in a brazen helmet he takes
the dragon’s teeth,[17] and strews them over the ploughed up fields. The
ground, impregnated beforehand with a potent drug, softens the seed; and
the teeth that were sown grow up, and become new bodies. And as the
infant receives the human form in the womb of the mother, and is there
formed in all its parts, and comes not forth into the common air until
at maturity, so when the figure of man is ripened in the bowels of the
pregnant earth, it arises in the fruitful plain; and, what is still more
surprising, it brandishes arms produced at the same time. When the
Pelasgians saw them preparing to hurl their spears with sharp points at
the head of the Hæmonian youth, they lowered their countenances and
their courage, {quailing} with fear. She, too, became alarmed, who had
rendered him secure; and when she saw the youth, being but one, attacked
by so many enemies, she turned pale, and suddenly chilled {with fear},
sat down without blood {in her cheeks}. And, lest the herbs that had
been given by her, should avail him but little, she repeats an auxiliary
charm, and summons {to her aid} her secret arts. He, hurling a heavy
stone into the midst of his enemies, turns the warfare, now averted from
himself, upon themselves. The Earth-born brothers perish by mutual
wounds, and fall in civil fight. The Greeks congratulate him, and caress
the conqueror, and cling to him in hearty embraces. And thou too,
barbarian maiden, wouldst fain have embraced him; ’twas modesty that
opposed the design; otherwise thou wouldst have embraced him; but regard
for thy reputation restrained thee from doing so. What thou mayst do,
{thou dost do}; thou rejoicest with a silent affection, and thou givest
thanks to thy charms, and to the Gods, the authors of them.

It {still} remains to lay asleep with herbs the watchful dragon, who,
distinguished by his crest and his three tongues, and terrible with his
hooked teeth, is the keeper of the Golden Fleece. After he has sprinkled
him with herbs of Lethæan juice,[18] and has thrice repeated words that
cause placid slumbers, which {would even calm} the boisterous ocean,
{and} which would stop the rapid rivers, sleep creeps upon the eyes that
were strangers to it, and the hero, the son of Æson, gains the gold; and
proud of the spoil and bearing with him the giver of the prize as a
second spoil, he arrives victorious, with his wife, at the port of
Iolcos.[19]

    [Footnote 1: _The Minyæ._--Ver. 1. The Argonauts. The Minyæ were a
    people of Thessaly, so called from Minyas, the son of Orchomenus.]

    [Footnote 2: _Pagasæan ship._--Ver. 1. Pagasæ was a seaport of
    Thessaly, at the foot of Mount Pelion, where the ship Argo was
    built.]

    [Footnote 3: _Distressed old man._--Ver. 4. Clarke translates
    ‘miseri senis ore,’ ‘from the mouth of the miserable old fellow.’]

    [Footnote 4: _Daughter of Æetes._--Ver. 9. Medea was the daughter
    of Æetes, the king of Colchis. Juno, favoring Jason, had persuaded
    Venus to inspire Medea with love for him.]

    [Footnote 5: _Haste then._--Ver. 47. Clarke translates
    ‘accingere,’ more literally than elegantly, ‘buckle to.’]

    [Footnote 6: _Pelasgian cities._--Ver. 49. Pelasgia was properly
    that part of Greece which was afterwards called Thessaly. The
    province of Pelasgiotis, in Thessaly, afterwards retained its
    name, which was derived from the Pelasgi, an early people of
    Greece. Pliny informs us that Peloponnesus at first had the names
    of ‘Apia’ and ‘Pelasgia.’ Some suppose that the Pelasgi derived
    their name from Pelasgus, the son of Jupiter; while other writers
    assert that they were so called from πελαργοὶ, ‘storks,’ from
    their wandering habits. The name is frequently used, as in the
    present instance, to signify the whole of the Greeks.]

    [Footnote 7: _My sister._--Ver. 51. Her sister was Chalciope, who
    had married Phryxus, after his arrival in Colchis. Her children
    being found by Jason, in the isle of Dia, they came with him to
    Colchis, and presented him to their mother, who afterwards
    commended him to the care of Medea.]

    [Footnote 8: _And my brother._--Ver. 51. Her brother was Absyrtus,
    whose tragical death is afterwards mentioned.]

    [Footnote 9: _Is barbarous._--Ver. 53. It was certainly ‘barbara’
    in the eyes of a Greek; but the argument sounds rather oddly in
    the mouth of Medea, herself a native of the country.]

    [Footnote 10: _The youth of Greece._--Ver. 56. These were the
    Argonauts, who were selected from the most noble youths of
    Greece.]

    [Footnote 11: _What mountains._--Ver. 63. These were the Cyanean
    rocks, or Symplegades, at the mouth of the Euxine sea.]

    [Footnote 12: _Hecate._--Ver. 74. Ancient writers seem to have
    been much divided in opinion who Hecate was. Ovid here follows the
    account which made her to be the daughter of Perses, who,
    according to Diodorus Siculus, was the son of Phœbus, and the
    brother of Æetes. Marrying her uncle Æetes, she is said to have
    been the mother of Circe, Medea, and Absyrtus. By some writers she
    is confounded with the Moon and with Proserpine; as identical with
    the Moon, she has the epithets ‘Triceps’ and ‘Triformis,’ often
    given to her by the poets, because the Moon sometimes is full,
    sometimes disappears, and often shows but part of her disk.]

    [Footnote 13: _And by the sire._--Ver. 96. Allusion is made to the
    Sun, who was said to be the father of Æetes, the destined
    father-in-law of Jason.]

    [Footnote 14: _Breathe forth flames._--Ver. 104. The name of the
    God of fire is here used to signify that element. Apollodorus
    says, that Medea gave Jason a drug (φάρμακον) to rub over himself
    and his armor.]

    [Footnote 15: _Or when flints._--Ver. 107. It is difficult to
    determine whether ‘silices’ here means ‘flint-stones,’ or
    ‘lime-stone;’ probably the latter, from the mention of water
    sprinkled over them. If the meaning is ‘flint-stones,’ the passage
    may refer to the manufacture of glass, with the art of making
    which the ancients were perfectly acquainted.]

    [Footnote 16: _Unused to it._--Ver. 119. Because, being sacred to
    Mars, it was not permitted to be ploughed.]

    [Footnote 17: _Dragon’s teeth._--Ver. 122. These were a portion of
    the teeth of the dragon slain by Cadmus, which Mars and Minerva
    had sent to Æetes.]

    [Footnote 18: _Lethæan juice._--Ver. 152. Lethe was a river of the
    infernal regions, whose waters were said to produce sleep and
    forgetfulness.]

    [Footnote 19: _Port of Iolcos._--Ver. 158. Iolcos was a city of
    Thessaly, of which country Jason was a native.]


EXPLANATION.

  To understand this story, one of the most famous in the early history
  of Greece, we must go back to the origin of it, and examine the
  fictions which the poets have mingled with the history of the
  expedition of the Argonauts, one of the most remarkable events of the
  fabulous ages.

  Athamas, the son of Æolus, grandson of Hellen, and great-grandson of
  Deucalion, having married Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, was obliged to
  divorce her, on account of the madness with which she was attacked. He
  afterwards married Nephele, by whom he had a son and daughter, Phryxus
  and Helle; but on his taking his first wife again, she brought him two
  sons, Learchus and Melicerta. Ino, hating the children of Nephele,
  sought to destroy them. Phryxus being informed thereof, ordered a ship
  to be privately prepared; and taking his father’s treasures, sailed
  with his sister Helle, to seek a retreat in the court of Æetes, his
  kinsman. Helle died on the voyage, but Phryxus arrived in Colchis,
  where he dedicated the prow of his ship to Neptune, or Jupiter. He
  there married Chalciope, by whom he had four sons, Argos, Phrontes,
  Molas, and Cylindus. Some years after, Æetes caused him to be
  assassinated; and his sons fleeing to the court of their grandfather,
  Athamas, were shipwrecked on an island, where they remained until
  found there by Jason, who took them back to their mother. Having
  mourned them as dead, she was transported with joy on finding them,
  and used every exertion to aid Jason in promoting his addresses to
  Medea. Æetes having seized the treasures of Athamas on the death of
  Phryxus, the Greeks prepared an expedition to recover them, and to
  avenge his death. Pelias, who had driven his brother Æson from the
  throne of Iolcos, desiring to procure the absence of his son Jason,
  took this opportunity of engaging him in an enterprise, which promised
  both glory, profit, and a large amount of personal exertion. The
  uneasiness which Pelias felt was caused by the prediction of an
  oracle, that he should be killed by a prince of the family of Æolus,
  and which warned him to beware of a person who should have but one
  shoe. Just at that period, Jason, returning from the school of Chiron,
  lost one of his shoes in crossing a river. On this, his uncle was
  desirous to destroy him; but not daring to do so publicly, he induced
  him to embark with the Argonauts, expecting that he would perish in an
  undertaking of so perilous a nature. Many young nobles of Greece
  repaired to the court of Iolcos, and joined in the undertaking, when
  they chose Jason for their leader, and embarked in a ship, the name of
  which was Argo, and from which the adventurers received the name of
  Argonauts.

  Diodorus Siculus says, that the ship was so named from its swiftness;
  while others say, that it was so called from Argus, the name of its
  builder, or from the Argives, or Greeks, on board of it. Bochart,
  however, supposes, that the name is derived from the Phœnician word
  ‘arco,’ which signifies ‘long,’ and suggests, that before that time
  the Greeks sailed in vessels of a rounder form, Jason being the first
  who sailed in a ship built in the form of a galley. After many
  adventures, on arriving at the Isle of Lemnos, they found that the
  women had killed their husbands in a fit of jealousy, on which the
  Argonauts took wives from their number, and Jason received for his
  companion Hypsipyle, the daughter of Thoas. Putting to sea again, they
  were driven on the coast of Bithynia, where they delivered Phineus,
  its king, from the persecution of the Harpies, who were in the habit
  of snatching away the victuals from his table. These monsters, of
  hideous form, with crooked beaks and talons, huge wings, and the faces
  of women, the Argonauts, and especially Calais and Zethes, pursued as
  far as the islands called Strophades, in the Ionian sea, where Iris
  appearing to them, enjoined them to pursue the Harpies no further,
  promising that Phineus should no longer be persecuted by them. To
  explain this story, some suppose that the Harpies were the daughters
  of Phineus, who by their dissipation and extravagance, had ruined him
  in his old age, which occasioned the saying, that they snatched the
  victuals out of his mouth. Le Clerc thinks, that the Harpies were vast
  swarms of grasshoppers, which ravaged all Paphlagonia, and caused a
  famine in the dominions of Phineus; the word ‘arbati,’ whence the term
  ‘Harpy’ is derived, signifying ‘a grasshopper;’ and that the North
  wind blowing them into the Ionian sea, it gave rise to the saying,
  that the sons of Boreas pursued them so far. Diodorus Siculus does not
  mention the Harpies, though he speaks of the arrival of the Argonauts
  at the court of Phineus.

  After some other adventures, the Argonauts arrived at Colchis. Æetes,
  or Æeta, the king, having been forewarned by an oracle, that a
  stranger should deprive him of his crown and life, had established a
  custom of sacrificing all strangers found in his dominions. His
  daughter Medea, falling in love with Jason, promised him her
  assistance in preserving them from the dangers to which they were
  exposed, on the condition of his marrying her. Having engaged to do
  so, she conducted him by night to the royal palace, and gave him a
  false key, by means whereof he found the royal treasures, and carrying
  them off, embarked with Medea and his companions. By way of explaining
  the miraculous portion of the story, we may, perhaps, not err in
  supposing, that the account of it was originally written in the
  Phœnician language; and through not understanding it, the Greeks
  invented the fiction of the Fleece, the Dragon, and the Fiery Bulls.
  Bochart and Le Clerc have observed, that the Syriac word ‘gaza,’
  signifies either ‘a treasure,’ or ‘a fleece.’ ‘Saur,’ which means ‘a
  wall,’ also means ‘a bull;’ and in the same language the same word,
  ‘nachas,’ signifies both ‘brass,’ ‘iron,’ and ‘a dragon.’ Hence,
  instead of the simple narrative, that Jason, by the aid of Medea,
  carried away the treasures which Æetes kept within walls, with bolts,
  or locks of metal, and which Phryxus had carried to Colchis in a ship
  with the figure of a ram at the prow, it was published, and circulated
  by the ignorant, that the Gods, to save Phryxus from his stepmother,
  sent him a sheep with a golden fleece, which bore him to Colchis; that
  its fleece became the object of the ambition of the leading men of
  Greece; and that whoever wished to bear it away was obliged to contend
  with bulls and dragons. Some historians, by way of interpreting the
  story, affirm, that the keeper of the treasures was named ‘Draco,’ or
  ‘Dragon,’ and that the garrison of the stronghold of Æetes was brought
  from the ‘Tauric’ Chersonesus. They say also, that the fleece was the
  skin of the sheep which Phryxus had sacrificed to Neptune, which he
  had caused to be gilt. It is not, however, very likely, that an object
  so trifling could have excited the avarice of the Greeks, and caused
  them to undertake an expedition accompanied with so many dangers. The
  dragon’s teeth most probably bear reference to some foreign troops
  which Jason, in the same way as Cadmus had done, found means to
  alienate from Æetes, and to bring over to his own side. Homer makes
  but very slight allusion to the adventures of the Argonauts.


FABLE II. [VII.159-349]

  Jason, after his return home, requests Medea to restore his father
  Æson to youth, which she performs; then, going to the court of Pelias,
  she avenges the injuries which he had done to the family of Jason, by
  making him the victim of the credulity of his own daughters, who, in
  compliance with her pretended regard for them, stab him to death.
  Medea, having executed her design, makes her escape in her chariot.

The Hæmonian mothers and aged fathers bring presents, for receiving
their sons {safe home}; and frankincense dissolves, piled on the flames,
and the devoted victim falls, having its horns gilded. But Æson is not
among those congratulating, being now near death, and worn out with the
years of old age; when thus the son of Æson {addresses Medea}: “O wife,
to whom I confess that I owe my safety, although thou hast granted me
everything, and the sum of thy favors exceeds {all} belief; {still}, if
{thy enchantments} can effect this (and what can enchantments not
effect?), take away from my own years, and, when taken, add them to
{those of} my father.”

And {thus saying}, he could not check his tears. She was moved with the
affection of the petitioner; and {her father}, Æetes, left behind,
recurred to her mind, unlike {that of Jason}; yet she did not confess
any such feelings. “What a piece of wickedness, husband,” said she, “has
escaped thy affectionate lips! Can I, then, seem capable of transferring
to any one a portion of thy life? May Hecate not allow of this; nor dost
thou ask what is reasonable; but, Jason, I will endeavor to grant thee a
favor {still} greater than that which thou art asking. By my arts we
will endeavor to bring back the long years of my father-in-law, and not
by means of thy years; if the Goddess of the triple form[20] do but
assist, and propitiously aid {so} vast an undertaking.” Three nights
were {now} wanting that the horns {of the Moon} might meet entirely, and
might form a {perfect} orb. After the Moon shone in her full, and looked
down upon the Earth, with her disk complete, {Medea} went forth from the
house, clothed in garments flowing loose, with bare feet,[21] and having
her unadorned hair hanging over her shoulders, and unattended, directed
her wandering steps through the still silence of midnight. Sound sleep
has {now} relaxed {the nerves of both} men, and birds, and beasts; the
hedges and the motionless foliage are still, without any noise, the dewy
air is still; the stars alone are twinkling; towards which, holding up
her arms, three times she turns herself about, three times she
besprinkles her hair with water taken from the stream; with three yells
she opens her mouth, and, her knee bending upon the hard ground, she
says, “O Night, most faithful to these my mysteries, and ye golden
Stars, who, with the Moon, succeed the fires of the day, and thou,
three-faced Hecate,[22] who comest conscious of my design, and ye charms
and arts of the enchanters, and thou, too, Earth, that dost furnish the
enchanters with powerful herbs; ye breezes, too, and winds, mountains,
rivers, and lakes, and all ye Deities of the groves, and all ye Gods of
night, attend here; through whose aid, whenever I will, the rivers run
back from their astonished banks to their sources, {and} by my charms I
calm the troubled sea, and rouse it when calm; I disperse the clouds,
and I bring clouds {upon the Earth}; I both allay the winds, and I raise
them; and I break the jaws of serpents with my words and my spells;
I move, too, the solid rocks, and the oaks torn up with their own
{native} earth, and the forests {as well}. I command the mountains, too,
to quake, and the Earth to groan, and the ghosts to come forth from
their tombs. Thee, too, O Moon, do I draw down, although the
Temesæan[23] brass relieves thy pangs. By my spells, also, the chariot
of my grandsire is rendered pale; Aurora, too, is pale through my
enchantments. For me did ye blunt the flames of the bulls, and with the
curving plough you pressed the necks that never before bore the yoke.
You raised a cruel warfare for those born of the dragon among
themselves, and you lulled to sleep the keeper {of the golden fleece},
that had never known sleep; and {thus}, deceiving the guardian, you sent
the treasure into the Grecian cities. Now there is need of juices, by
means of which, old age, being renewed, may return to the bloom {of
life}, and may receive back again its early years; and {this} ye will
give me; for not in vain did the stars {just now} sparkle; nor yet in
vain is the chariot come, drawn by the necks of winged dragons.”

A chariot sent down from heaven was come; which, soon as she had
mounted, and had stroked the harnessed necks of the dragons, and had
shaken the light reins with her hands, she was borne aloft, and looked
down upon Thessalian Tempe below her, and guided her dragons towards the
chalky regions;[24] and observed the herbs which Ossa, and which the
lofty Pelion bore, Othrys, too, and Pindus, and Olympus {still} greater
than Pindus; and part she tore up by the root gently worked, part she
cut down with the bend of a brazen sickle.[25] Many a herb, too, that
grew on the banks of Apidanus[26] pleased her; many, too, {on the banks}
of Amphrysus; nor, Enipeus, didst thou escape. The Peneian waters, and
the Spercheian as well, contributed something, and the rushy shores of
Bœbe.[27] She plucks, too, enlivening herbs by the Eubœan Anthedon,[28]
not yet commonly known by the change of the body of Glaucus.[29] And now
the ninth day,[30] and the ninth night had seen her visiting all the
fields in her chariot, and upon the wings of the dragons, when she
returned; nor had the dragons been fed, but with the odors {of the
plants}: and yet they cast the skin of old age full of years. On her
arrival she stood without the threshold and the gates, and was canopied
by the heavens alone, and avoided the contact of her husband, and
erected two altars of turf; on the right hand, one to Hecate, but on the
left side one to Youth.[31] After she had hung them round with vervain
and forest boughs, throwing up the earth from two trenches not far off,
she performed the rites, and plunged a knife into the throat of a black
ram, and besprinkled the wide trenches with blood. Then pouring thereon
goblets[32] of flowing wine, and pouring brazen goblets of warm milk;
she at the same time utters words, and calls upon the Deities of the
earth, and entreats the king of the shades[33] below, together with his
ravished wife, that they will not hasten to deprive the aged limbs of
life. When she had rendered them propitious both by prayers and
prolonged mutterings, she commanded the exhausted body of Æson to be
brought out to the altars, and stretched it cast into a deep sleep by
her charms, {and} resembling one dead, upon the herbs laid beneath him.

She orders the son of Æson to go far thence, and the attendants, too, to
go afar; and warns them to withdraw their profane eyes from her
mysteries. At her order, they retire. Medea, with dishevelled hair, goes
round the blazing altars like a worshipper of Bacchus, and dips her
torches, split into many parts, in the trench, black with blood, and
lights them, {thus} dipt, at the two altars. And thrice does she[34]
purify the aged man with flames, thrice with water, and thrice with
sulphur. In the meantime the potent mixture[35] is boiling and heaving
in the brazen cauldron, placed {on the flames}, and whitens with
swelling froth. There she boils roots cut up in the Hæmonian valleys,
and seeds and flowers and acrid juices. She adds stones fetched from the
most distant East, and sand, which the ebbing tide of the ocean has
washed. She adds, too, hoar-frost gathered at night by the light of the
moon, and the ill-boding wings of a screech owl,[36] together with its
flesh; and the entrails of an ambiguous wolf, that was wont to change
its appearance of a wild beast into {that of} a man. Nor is there
wanting there the thin scaly slough of the Cinyphian water-snake,[37]
and the liver of the long-lived stag;[38] to which, besides, she adds
the bill and head of a crow that had sustained {an existence of} nine
ages. When, with these and a thousand other things without a name, the
barbarian {princess} has completed the medicine prepared for the mortal
{body}, with a branch of the peaceful olive long since dried up, she
stirs them all up, and blends the lowest {ingredients} with the highest.
Behold! the old branch, turned about in the heated cauldron, at first
becomes green; and after no long time assumes foliage, and is suddenly
loaded with heavy olives. Besides, wherever the fire throws the froth
from out of the hollow cauldron, and the boiling drops fall upon the
earth, the ground becomes green, and flowers and soft grass spring up.

Soon as Medea sees this, she opens the throat[39] of the old man with a
drawn sword; and allowing the former blood to escape, replenishes {his
veins} with juices. Soon as Æson has drunk them in, either received in
his mouth or in his wound, his beard and his hair[40] laying aside their
hoariness, assume a black hue. His leanness flies, being expelled; his
paleness and squalor are gone. His hollow veins are supplied with
additional blood, and his limbs become instinct with vigor. Æson is
astonished, and calls to recollection that he was such four times ten
years before.

Liber had beheld from on high the miraculous operations of so great a
prodigy; and taught {thereby} that youthful years can be restored to his
nurses,[41] he requests this present from the daughter of Æetes.[42]

And that her arts[43] may not cease, the Phasian feigns a counterfeited
quarrel with her husband, and flies as a suppliant to the threshold of
Pelias[44] and (as he himself is oppressed with old age) his daughters
receive her; whom, after a short time, the crafty Colchian engages to
herself by the appearance of a pretended friendship. And while among the
greatest of her merits, she relates that the infirmities of Æson have
been removed, and is dwelling upon that part {of the story}, a hope is
suggested to the damsels, the daughters of Pelias, that by the like art
their parent may become young again; and this they request {of her}, and
repeatedly entreat her to name her own price. For a short time she is
silent, and appears to be hesitating, and keeps their mind in suspense,
as they ask, with an affected gravity.

Afterwards, when she has promised them, she says, “That there may be the
greater confidence in this my skill, the leader of the flock among your
sheep, which is the most advanced in age, shall become a lamb by this
preparation.” Immediately, a fleecy {ram}, enfeebled by innumerable
years, is brought, with his horns bending around his hollow temples;
whose withered throat, when she has cut with the Hæmonian knife, and
stained the steel with its scanty blood, the enchantress plunges the
limbs of the sheep, and her potent juices together, into the hollow
copper. The limbs of his body are lessened, and he puts off his horns,
and his years together with his horns; and in the midst of the kettle a
low bleating is heard. And without any delay, while they are wondering
at the bleating, a lamb springs forth, and gambols in its course, and
seeks the suckling dugs. The daughters of Pelias are amazed; and after
her promises have obtained her credit, then, indeed, they urge her still
more strongly. Phœbus had thrice taken the yoke off his horses sinking
in the Iberian sea;[45] and upon the fourth night the radiant stars were
twinkling, when the deceitful daughter of Æetes set pure water upon a
blazing fire, and herbs without any virtue. And now sleep like to death,
their bodies being relaxed, had seized the king, and the guards together
with their king, which her charms and the influence of her enchanting
tongue had caused. The daughters {of the king}, {as} ordered, had
entered the threshold, together with the Colchian, and had surrounded
the bed; “Why do you hesitate now, in your indolence? Unsheathe your
swords,” says she, “and exhaust the ancient gore, that I may replenish
his empty veins with youthful blood. The life and the age of your father
is now in your power. If you have any affection and cherish not vain
hopes, perform your duty to your father, and drive away old age with
your weapons, and, thrusting in the steel, let out his corrupted blood.”

Upon this exhortation, as each of them is affectionate, she becomes
especially undutiful, and that she may not be wicked, she commits
wickedness. Yet not one is able to look upon her own blow; and they
turn away their eyes, and turning away their faces, they deal chance
blows with their cruel right hands. He, streaming with gore, yet raises
his limbs on his elbows, and, half-mangled, attempts to rise from the
couch; and in the midst of so many swords stretching forth his pale
arms, he says, “What are you doing, my daughters? What arms you against
the life of your parent?” Their courage and their hands fail {them}. As
he is about to say more, the Colchian severs his throat, together with
his words, and plunges him, {thus} mangled, in the boiling cauldron.

    [Footnote 20: _Of the triple form._--Ver. 177. Hecate, the Goddess
    of enchantment.]

    [Footnote 21: _With bare feet._--Ver. 183. To have the feet bare
    was esteemed requisite for the due performance of magic rites,
    though sometimes on such occasions, and probably in the present
    instance, only one foot was left unshod. In times of drought,
    according to Tertullian, a procession and ceremonial, called
    ‘nudipedalia,’ were resorted to, with a view to propitiate the
    Gods by this token of grief and humiliation.]

    [Footnote 22: _Three-faced Hecate._--Ver. 194. Though Hecate and
    the Moon are here mentioned as distinct, they are frequently
    considered to have been the same Deity, with different attributes.
    The three heads with which Hecate was represented were those of a
    horse, a dog, and a pig, or sometimes, in the place of the latter,
    a human head.]

    [Footnote 23: _Temesæan._--Ver. 207. Temesa was a town of the
    Brutii, on the coast of Etruria, famous for its copper mines. It
    was also sometimes called Tempsa. There was also another Temesa,
    a city of Cyprus, also famous for its copper.]

    [Footnote 24: _Chalky regions._--Ver. 223. Such was the
    characteristic of the mountainous country of Thessaly, where she
    now alighted.]

    [Footnote 25: _Brazen sickle._--Ver. 227. We learn from Macrobius
    and Cælius Rhodiginus that copper was preferred to iron in cutting
    herbs for the purposes of enchantment, in exorcising spirits, and
    in aiding the moon in eclipses against the supposed charms of the
    witches, because it was supposed to be a purer metal.]

    [Footnote 26: _Apidanus._--Ver. 228. This and Amphrysus were
    rivers of Thessaly.]

    [Footnote 27: _Shores of Bœbe._--Ver. 231. Strabo makes mention of
    lake Bœbeis, near the town of Bœbe, in Thessaly. It was not far
    from the mouth of the river Peneus.]

    [Footnote 28: _Anthedon._--Ver. 232. This was a town of Bœotia,
    opposite to Eubœa, being situated on the Euripus, now called the
    straits of Negropont.]

    [Footnote 29: _Glaucus._--Ver. 233. He was a fisherman, who was
    changed into a sea God, on tasting a certain herb. His story is
    related at the end of the 13th Book.]

    [Footnote 30: _Ninth day._--Ver. 234. The numbers three and nine
    seem to have been deemed of especial virtue in incantations.]

    [Footnote 31: _One to youth._--Ver. 241. This goddess was also
    called Hebe, from the Greek word signifying youth. She was the
    daughter of Juno, and the wife of Hercules. She was also the
    cup-bearer of the Gods, until she was supplanted by Ganymede.]

    [Footnote 32: _Goblets._--Ver. 246. ‘Carchesia.’ The ‘carchesium’
    was a kind of drinking cup, used by the Greeks from very early
    times. It was slightly contracted in the middle, and its two
    handles extended from the top to the bottom. It was employed in
    the worship of the Deities, and was used for libations of blood,
    wine, milk, and honey. Macrobius says that it was only used by the
    Greeks. Virgil makes mention of it as used to hold wine.]

    [Footnote 33: _King of the shades._--Ver. 249. Pluto and
    Proserpine. Clarke translates this line and the next, ‘And prays
    to the king of shades with his kidnapped wife, that they would not
    be too forward to deprive the limbs of the old gentleman of
    life.’]

    [Footnote 34: _Thrice does she._--Ver. 261. Clarke thus renders
    this and the two following lines: ‘And purifies the old gentleman
    three times with flame, three times with water, and three times
    with sulphur. In the meantime the strong medicine boils, and
    bounces about in a brazen kettle set on the fire.’]

    [Footnote 35: _The potent mixture._--Ver. 262. This reminds us of
    the line of Shakespeare in Macbeth, ‘Make the hell-broth thick and
    slab.’]

    [Footnote 36: _A screech owl._--Ver. 269. ‘Strigis.’ The ‘strix’
    is supposed to have been the screech owl, and was a favorite bird
    with the enchanters, who were supposed to have the power of
    assuming that form. From the description given of the ‘striges’ in
    the Sixth Book of the Fasti, it would almost appear that the
    qualities of the vampyre bat were attributed to them.]

    [Footnote 37: _Water snake._--Ver. 272. The ‘chelydrus’ was a
    venomous water-snake of a powerful and offensive smell. The
    Delphin Commentator seems to think that a kind of turtle is here
    meant.]

    [Footnote 38: _Long-lived stag._--Ver. 273. The stag was said to
    live four times, and the crow nine times, as long as man.]

    [Footnote 39: _Opened the throat._--Ver. 285-6. Clarke translates
    the words ‘quod simul ac vidit, stricto Medea recludit Ense senis
    jugulum,’ ‘which as soon as Medea saw, she opens the throat of the
    old gentleman with a drawn sword.’]

    [Footnote 40: _And his hair._--Ver. 288. Medea is thought by some
    writers not only to have discovered a dye for giving a dark color
    to grey hair, but to have found out the invigorating properties of
    the warm bath.]

    [Footnote 41: _To his nurses._--Ver. 295. These (in Book iii.
    l. 314.) he calls by the name of Nyseïdes; but in the Fifth Book
    of the Fasti they are styled Hyades, and are placed in the number
    of the Constellations. A commentator on Homer, quoting from
    Pherecydes, calls them ‘Dodonides.’]

    [Footnote 42: _Daughter of Æetes._--Ver. 296. The reading in most
    of the MSS. here is Tetheiâ, or ‘Thetide;’ but Burmann has
    replaced it by Æetide, ‘the daughter of Æetes.’ It has been justly
    remarked, why should Bacchus apply to Tethys to have the age of
    the Nymphs, who had nursed him, renewed, when he had just beheld
    Medea, and not Tethys, do it in favor of Æson?]

    [Footnote 43: _That her arts._--Ver. 297. ‘Neve doli cessent’ is
    translated by Clarke, ‘and that her tricks might not cease.’]

    [Footnote 44: _Pelias._--Ver. 298. He was the brother of Æson, and
    had dethroned him, and usurped his kingdom.]

    [Footnote 45: _The Iberian sea._--Ver. 324. The Atlantic, or
    Western Ocean, is thus called from Iberia, the ancient name of
    Spain; which country, perhaps, was so called from the river
    Iberus, or Ebro, flowing through it.]


EXPLANATION.

  The authors who have endeavored to explain the true meaning and origin
  of the story of the restitution of Æson to youth, are much divided in
  their opinions concerning it. Some think it refers to the mystery of
  reviving the decrepit and aged by the transfusion of youthful blood.
  It is, however, not improbable, that Medea obtained the reputation of
  being a sorceress, only because she had been taught by her mother the
  virtues of various plants: and that she administered a potion to Æson,
  which furnished him with new spirits and strength.

  The daughters of Pelias being desirous to obtain the same favor of
  Medea for their father, she, to revenge the evils which he had brought
  upon her husband and his family, may possibly have mixed some venomous
  herbs in his drink, which immediately killed him.


FABLE III. [VII.350-401]

  Medea, after having killed Pelias, goes through several countries to
  Corinth, where, finding that Jason, in her absence, has married the
  daughter of king Creon, she sets fire to the palace, whereby the
  princess and her father are consumed. She then murders the two
  children which she had by Jason, before his face, and takes to flight.

And unless she had mounted into the air with winged dragons, she would
not have been exempt from punishment; she flies aloft, over both shady
Pelion, the lofty habitation[46] of the son of Phillyra, and over
Othrys, and the places noted for the fate of the ancient Cerambus.[47]
He, by the aid of Nymphs, being lifted on wings into the air, when the
ponderous earth was covered by the sea pouring over it, not being
overwhelmed, escaped the flood of Deucalion. On the left side, she
leaves the Æolian Pitane,[48] and the image of the long Dragon[49] made
out of stone, and the wood of Ida,[50] in which Bacchus hid a stolen
bullock beneath the appearance of a fictitious stag; {the spot} too,
where the father of Corythus[51] lies buried beneath a little sand, and
the fields which Mæra[52] alarmed by her unusual barking.

The city, too, of Eurypylus,[53] in which the Coan matrons[54] wore
horns, at the time when the herd of Hercules[55] departed {thence};
Phœbean Rhodes[56] also, and the Ialysian Telchines,[57] whose eyes[58]
corrupting all things by the very looking upon them, Jupiter utterly
hating, thrust beneath the waves of his brother. She passed, too, over
the Cartheian walls of ancient Cea,[59] where her father Alcidamas[60]
was destined to wonder that a gentle dove could arise from the body of
his daughter.

After that, she beholds the lakes of Hyrie,[61] and Cycneian Tempe,[62]
which the swan that had suddenly become such, frequented. For there
Phyllius, at the request of the boy, had given him birds, and a fierce
lion tamed; being ordered, too, to subdue a bull, he had subdued him;
and being angry at his despising his love so often, he denied him,
{when} begging the bull as his last reward. The other, indignant, said,
“Thou shalt wish that thou hadst given it;” and {then} leaped from a
high rock. All imagined he had fallen; but, transformed into a swan, he
hovered in the air on snow-white wings. But his mother, Hyrie, not
knowing that he was saved, dissolved in tears, and formed a lake
{called} after her own name.

Adjacent to these {places} is Pleuron;[63] in which Combe,[64] the
daughter of Ophis, escaped the wounds of her sons with trembling wings.
After that, she sees the fields of Calaurea,[65] sacred to Latona,
conscious of the transformation of their king, together with his wife,
into birds. Cyllene is on the right hand, on which Menephron[66] was
{one day} to lie with his mother, after the manner of savage beasts. Far
hence she beholds Cephisus,[67] lamenting the fate of his grandson,
changed by Apollo into a bloated sea-calf; and the house of Eumelus,[68]
lamenting his son in the air.

At length, borne on the wings of her dragons, she reached the Pirenian
Ephyre.[69] Here, those of ancient times promulgated that in the early
ages mortal bodies were produced from mushrooms springing from rain. But
after the new-made bride was consumed, through the Colchian drugs, and
both seas beheld the king’s house on fire, her wicked sword was bathed
in the blood of her sons; and the mother, having {thus} barbarously
revenged herself, fled from the arms of Jason. Being borne hence by her
Titanian dragons,[70] she entered the city of Pallas, which saw thee,
most righteous Phineus,[71] and thee, aged Periphas,[72] flying
together, and the granddaughter of Polypemon[73] resting upon new-formed
wings.

    [Footnote 46: _Lofty habitation._--Ver. 352. The mountains of
    Thessaly are so called, because Chiron, the son of the Nymph
    Phillyra, lived there.]

    [Footnote 47: _Cerambus._--Ver. 353. Antoninus Liberalis, quoting
    from Nicander, calls him Terambus, and says that he lived at the
    foot of Mount Pelion; he incurred the resentment of the Nymphs,
    who changed him into a scarabæus, or winged beetle. Flying to the
    heights of Parnassus, at the time of the flood of Deucalion, he
    thereby made his escape. Some writers say that he was changed into
    a bird.]

    [Footnote 48: _Pitane._--Ver. 357. This was a town of Ætolia, in
    Asia Minor, near the mouth of the river Caicus.]

    [Footnote 49: _The long dragon._--Ver. 358. He alludes, most
    probably, to the story of the Lesbian changed into a dragon or
    serpent, which is mentioned in the Eleventh book, line 58.]

    [Footnote 50: _Wood of Ida._--Ver. 359. This was the grove of Ida,
    in Phrygia. It is supposed that he refers to the story of
    Thyoneus, the son of Bacchus, who, having stolen an ox from some
    Phrygian shepherds, was pursued by them; on which Bacchus, to
    screen his son, changed the ox into a stag, and invested Thyoneus
    with the garb of a hunter.]

    [Footnote 51: _Father of Corythus._--Ver. 361. Paris was the
    father of Corythus, by Œnone. He was said to have been buried at
    Cebrena, a little town of Phrygia, near Troy.]

    [Footnote 52: _Mæra._--Ver. 362. This was the name of the dog of
    Icarius, the father of Erigone, who discovered the murder of his
    master by the shepherds of Attica, and was made a Constellation,
    under the name of the Dog-star. As, however, the flight of Medea
    was now far distant from Attica, it is more likely that the Poet
    refers to the transformation of some female, named Mæra, into a
    dog, whose story has not come down to us; indeed, Lactantius
    expresses this as his opinion. Burmann thinks that it refers to
    the transformation of Hecuba, mentioned in the 13th book, line
    406; and that ‘Mæra’ is a corruption for some other name of
    Hecuba.]

    [Footnote 53: _Eurypylus._--Ver. 363. He was a former king of the
    Isle of Cos, in the Ægean Sea, and was much famed for his skill as
    an augur.]

    [Footnote 54: _The Coan matrons._--Ver. 363. Lactantius says that
    the women of Cos, extolling their own beauty as superior to that
    of Venus, incurred the resentment of that Goddess, and were
    changed by her into cows. Another version of the story is, that
    these women, being offended at Hercules for driving the oxen of
    Ægeon through their island, were very abusive, on which Juno
    transformed them into cows: to this latter version reference is
    made in the present passage.]

    [Footnote 55: _Hercules._--Ver. 364. He besieged and took the
    chief city of the island, which was also called Cos; and having
    slain Eurypylus, carried off his daughter Chalciope.]

    [Footnote 56: _Phœbean Rhodes._--Ver. 365. The island of Rhodes,
    in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Asia Minor, was sacred to
    the Sun, and was said never to be deserted by his rays.]

    [Footnote 57: _Ialysian Telchines._--Ver. 365. Ialysus was one of
    the three most ancient cities of Rhodes, and was said to have been
    founded by Ialysus, whose parent was the Sun. The Telchines, or
    Thelchines, were a race supposed to have migrated thither from
    Crete. They were persons of great artistic skill, on which account
    they may, possibly, have obtained the character of being
    magicians; such was the belief of Strabo.]

    [Footnote 58: _Whose eyes._--Ver. 366. The evil eye was supposed
    by the ancients not only to have certain fascinating powers, but
    to be able to destroy the beauty of any object on which it was
    turned.]

    [Footnote 59: _Cea._--Ver. 368. This island, now Zia, is in the
    Ægean sea, near Eubœa. Carthæa was a city there, the ruins of
    which are still in existence.]

    [Footnote 60: _Alcidamas._--Ver. 369. Antoninus Liberalis says,
    that Alcidamas lived not at Carthæa, but at Iülis, another city in
    the Isle of Cea.]

    [Footnote 61: _Lakes of Hyrie._--Ver. 371. Hyrie was the mother of
    Cycnus; and pining away with grief on the transformation of her
    son, she was changed into a lake, called by her name.]

    [Footnote 62: _Cycneian Tempe._--Ver. 371. This was not Thessalian
    Tempe, but a valley of Teumesia, or Teumesus, a mountain of
    Bœotia.]

    [Footnote 63: _Pleuron._--Ver. 382. This was a city of Ætolia,
    near Mount Curius. It was far distant from Bœotia and Lake Hyrie.
    Some commentators, therefore, suggest that the reading should be
    Brauron, a village of Attica, near the confines of Bœotia.]

    [Footnote 64: _Combe._--Ver. 383. She was the mother of the
    Curetes of Ætolia, who, perhaps, received that name from Mount
    Curius. There was another Combe, the daughter of Asopus, who
    discovered the use of brazen arms, and was called Chalcis, from
    that circumstance. She was said to have borne a hundred daughters
    to her husband.]

    [Footnote 65: _Calaurea._--Ver. 384. This was an island between
    Crete and the Peloponnesus, in the Saronic gulf, which was sacred
    to Apollo. Latona resided there, having given Delos to Neptune in
    exchange for it. Demosthenes died there.]

    [Footnote 66: _Menephron._--Ver. 386. Hyginus says, that he
    committed incest both with his mother Blias, and with Cyllene, his
    daughter.]

    [Footnote 67: _Cephisus._--Ver. 388. The river Cephisus, in
    Bœotia, had a daughter, Praxithea. She was the wife of Erectheus,
    and bore him eight sons, the fate of one of whom is perhaps here
    referred to.]

    [Footnote 68: _Eumelus._--Ver. 390. He was the king of Patræ, on
    the sea-coast of Achaia. Triptolemus visited him with his winged
    chariot; on which, Antheas, the son of Eumelus, ascended it while
    his father was sleeping, and falling from it, he was killed. He
    is, probably, here referred to; and the reading should be ‘natum,’
    and not ‘natam.’ Some writers, however, suppose that his daughter
    was changed into a bird.]

    [Footnote 69: _Pirenian Ephyre._--Ver. 391. Corinth was so called
    from Ephyre, the daughter of Neptune, who was said to have lived
    there. Its inhabitants were fabled to have sprung from mushrooms.]

    [Footnote 70: _Titanian dragons._--Ver. 398. Her dragons are so
    called, either because, as Pindar says, they had sprung from the
    blood of the Titans, or because, according to the Greek tradition,
    the chariot and winged dragons had been sent to Medea by the Sun,
    one of whose names was Titan.]

    [Footnote 71: _Phineus._--Ver. 399. Any further particulars of the
    person here named are unknown. Some commentators suggest ‘Phini,’
    and that some female of the name of Phinis is alluded to, making
    the adjective ‘justissime’ of the feminine gender.]

    [Footnote 72: _Periphas._--Ver. 400. He was a very ancient king of
    Attica, before the time of Cecrops, and was said to have been
    changed into an eagle by Jupiter, while his wife was transformed
    into an osprey.]

    [Footnote 73: _Polypemon._--Ver. 401. This was a name of the
    robber Procrustes, who was slain by Theseus. Halcyone, the
    daughter of his son Scyron, having been guilty of incontinence,
    was thrown into the sea by her father, on which she was changed
    into a kingfisher, which bore her name.]


EXPLANATION.

  Jason being reconciled to the children of Pelias, gave the crown to
  his son Acastus. Becoming tired of Medea, he married Glauce, or
  Creüsa, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth. Medea, hastening to
  that place, left her two sons in the temple of Juno, and set fire to
  Creon’s palace, where he and his daughter were consumed to ashes,
  after which she killed her own children. Euripides, in his tragedy of
  Medea, makes a chorus of Corinthian women say, that the Corinthians
  themselves committed the murder, and that the Gods sent a plague on
  the city, as a punishment for the deed. Pausanias also says, that the
  tomb of Medea’s children, whom the Corinthians stoned to death, was
  still to be seen in his time; and that the Corinthians offered
  sacrifices there every year, to appease their ghosts, as the oracle
  had commanded them.

  Apollodorus relates this story in a different manner. He says, that
  Medea sent her rival a crown, dipped in a sort of gum of a combustible
  nature; and that when Glauce had put it on her head, it began to burn
  so furiously, that the young princess perished in the greatest misery.
  Medea afterwards retired to Thebes, where Hercules engaged to give her
  assistance against Jason, which promise, however, he failed to
  perform. Going thence to Athens, she married Ægeus.

  The story of her winged dragons may, perhaps, be based on the fact,
  that her ship was called ‘the Dragon.’ In recounting the particulars
  of her flight, Ovid makes allusion to several stories by the way, the
  most of which are entirely unknown to us. With regard to these
  fictions, it may not be out of place to remark here, as affording a
  key to many of them, that where a person escaped from any imminent
  danger, it was published that he had been changed into a bird. If, to
  avoid pursuit, a person hid himself in a cave, he was said to be
  transformed into a serpent; and if he burst into tears, from excess of
  grief, he was reported to have changed into a fountain; while, if a
  damsel lost herself in a wood, she became a Nymph, or a Dryad. The
  resemblance of names, also, gave rise to several fictions: thus,
  Alopis was changed into a fox; Cygnus into a swan; Coronis into a
  crow; and Cerambus into a horned beetle. As some few of the stories
  here alluded to by Ovid, refer to historical events, it may be
  remarked, that the account of the women of Cos being changed into
  cows, is thought by some to have been founded on the cruel act of the
  companions of Hercules, who sacrificed some of them to the Gods of the
  country. The inhabitants of the Isle of Rhodes were said to have been
  changed into rocks, because they perished in an inundation, which laid
  a part of that island under water, and particularly the town of
  Ialysus. The fruitfulness of the daughter of Alcidamas occasioned it
  to be said, that she was changed into a dove. The rage of Mæra is
  shown by her transformation into a bitch; and Arne was changed into a
  daw, because, having sold her country, her avarice was well depicted
  under the symbol of that bird, which, according to the popular
  opinion, is fond of money. Phillyra, the mother of the Centaur Chiron,
  was said to be changed into a linden-tree, probably because she
  happened to bear the name of that tree, which in the Greek language is
  called φιλύρα.


FABLE IV. [VII.402-468]

  Hercules chains the dog Cerberus, the guardian of the gates of the
  Infernal Regions. Theseus, after his exploits at Corinth, arrives at
  Athens, where Medea prepares a cup of poison for him. The king,
  however, recognizing his son, just as he is about to drink, snatches
  away the cup from him, while Medea flies in her chariot. Ægeus then
  makes a festival, to celebrate the arrival and preservation of
  Theseus. In the mean time, Minos, the king of Crete, solicits several
  princes to assist him in a war against Athens, to revenge the death of
  his son Androgeus, who had been murdered there.

Ægeus, to be blamed for this deed alone, shelters her; and hospitality
is not enough, he also joins her {to himself} by the ties of marriage.
And now was Theseus, his son, arrived, unknown to his father, who, by
his valor, had established peace in the Isthmus between the two seas.
For his destruction Medea mingles the wolfsbane, which she once brought
with her from the shores of Scythia. This, they say, sprang from the
teeth of the Echidnean dog. There is a gloomy cave,[74] with a dark
entrance, {wherein} there is a descending path, along which the
Tirynthian hero dragged away Cerberus resisting, and turning his eyes
sideways from the day and the shining rays {of the Sun}, in chains
formed of adamant; he, filled with furious rage, filled the air with
triple barkings at the same moment, and sprinkled the verdant fields
with white foam. This, they suppose, grew solid, and, receiving the
nourishment of a fruitful and productive soil, acquired the power of
being noxious. Because, full of life, it springs up on the hard rock,
the rustics call it aconite.[75]

This, by the contrivance of his wife, the father Ægeus himself presented
to his son,[76] as though to an enemy. Theseus had received the
presented cup with unsuspecting right hand, when his father perceived
upon the ivory hilt of his sword the tokens of his race,[77] and struck
the guilty {draught} from his mouth. She escaped death, having raised
clouds by her enchantments.

But the father, although he rejoices at his son’s being safe, astonished
that so great a wickedness can be committed with so narrow an escape
from death, heats the altars with fires, and loads the Gods with gifts;
and the axes strike the muscular necks of the oxen having their horns
bound with wreaths. No day is said {ever} to have shone upon the people
of Erectheus more famous than that--the senators and the common people
keep up the festivity; songs, too, they sing, wine inspiring wit. “Thee,
greatest Theseus,” said they, “Marathon[78] admired for {shedding} the
blood of the Cretan bull; and that the husbandman ploughs Cromyon[79] in
safety from the boar, is thy procurement and thy work. By thy means the
country of Epidaurus saw the club-bearing son of Vulcan[80] fall; {and}
the banks of the river Cephisus[81] saw the cruel Procrustes {fall by
thee}. Eleusis, sacred to Ceres, beheld the death of Cercyon.[82]
Sinnis[83] fell too, who barbarously used his great powers; who was able
to bend {huge} beams, and used to pull pine trees from aloft to the
earth, destined to scatter {human} bodies far and wide. The road to
Alcathoë,[84] the Lelegeïan city, is now open in safety, Scyron[85]
being laid low {in death}: {and} the earth denies a resting-place, the
water, {too}, denies a resting-place to the bones of the robber
scattered piecemeal; these, long tossed about, length of time is
reported to have hardened into rocks. To {these} rocks the name of
Scyron adheres. If we should reckon up thy glorious deeds, and thy
years, thy actions would exceed thy years {in number}. For thee, bravest
{hero}, we make public vows: in thy honor do we quaff the draughts of
wine.” The palace rings with the acclamations of the populace, and the
prayers of those applauding; and there is no place sorrowing throughout
the whole city.

And yet (so surely is the pleasure of no one unalloyed, and some anxiety
is {ever} interposing amid joyous circumstances), Ægeus does not have
his joy undisturbed, on receiving back his son. Minos prepares for war;
who, though he is strong in soldiers, strong in shipping, is still
strongest of all in the resentment of a parent, and, with retributive
arms, avenges the death of {his son} Androgeus. Yet, before the war, he
obtains auxiliary forces, and crosses the sea with a swift fleet, in
which he is accounted strong. On the one side, he joins Anaphe[86] to
himself; and the realms of Astypale; Anaphe by treaty, the realms of
Astypale by conquest; on the other side, the low Myconos, and the chalky
lands of Cimolus,[87] and the flourishing Cythnos, Scyros, and the level
Seriphos;[88] Paros, too, abounding in marble, and {the island} wherein
the treacherous Sithonian[89] betrayed the citadel, on receiving the
gold, which, in her covetousness, she had demanded. She was changed into
a bird, which even now has a passion for gold, the jackdaw {namely},
black-footed, and covered with black feathers.

    [Footnote 74: _A gloomy cave._--Ver. 409. This cavern was called
    Acherusia. It was situate in the country of the Mariandyni, near
    the city of Heraclea, in Pontus, and was said to be the entrance
    of the Infernal Regions. Cerberus was said to have been dragged
    from Tartarus by Hercules, through this cave, which circumstance
    was supposed to account for the quantity of aconite, or wolfsbane,
    that grew there.]

    [Footnote 75: _Call it aconite._--Ver. 419. From the Greek ακόνη,
    ‘a whetstone.’]

    [Footnote 76: _Presented to his son._--Ver. 420. Medea was anxious
    to secure the succession to the throne of Athens to her son Medus,
    and was therefore desirous to remove Theseus out of the way.]

    [Footnote 77: _Tokens of his race._--Ver. 423. Ægeus, leaving
    Æthra at Trœzen, in a state of pregnancy, charged her, if she bore
    a son, to rear him, but to tell no one whose son he was. He placed
    his own sword and shoes under a large stone, and directed her to
    send his son to him when he was able to lift the stone, and to
    take them from under it; and he then returned to Athens, where he
    married Medea. When Theseus had grown to the proper age, his
    mother led him to the stone under which his father had deposited
    his sword and shoes, which he raised with ease, and took them out.
    It was, probably, by means of this sword that Ægeus recognized his
    son in the manner mentioned in the text.]

    [Footnote 78: _Marathon._--Ver. 434. This was a town of Attica,
    adjoining a plain of the same name, where the Athenians, under the
    command of Miltiades, overthrew the Persians with immense
    slaughter. The bull which Theseus slew there was presented by
    Neptune to Minos. Being brought into Attica by Hercules, it laid
    waste that territory until it was slain by Theseus.]

    [Footnote 79: _Cromyon._--Ver. 435. This was a village of the
    Corinthian territory, which was infested by a wild boar of
    enormous size, that slew both men and animals. It was put to death
    by Theseus.]

    [Footnote 80: _Vulcan._--Ver. 437. By Antilia, Vulcan was the
    father of Periphetes, a robber who infested Epidaurus, in the
    Peloponnesus. He was so formidable with his club, that he was
    called Corynetas, from κορύνη, the Greek for ‘a club.’]

    [Footnote 81: _Cephisus._--Ver. 438. Procrustes was a robber of
    such extreme cruelty that he used to stretch out, or lop off, the
    extremities of his captives, according as they were shorter or
    longer than his bedstead. He infested the neighborhood of Eleusis,
    in Attica, which was watered by the Cephisus. He was put to death
    by Theseus.]

    [Footnote 82: _Cercyon._--Ver. 439. It was his custom to challenge
    travellers to wrestle, and to kill them, if they declined the
    contest, or were beaten in it. Theseus accepted his challenge; and
    having overcome him, put him to death. Eleusis was especially
    dedicated to Ceres; there the famous Eleusinian mysteries of that
    Goddess were held.]

    [Footnote 83: _Sinnis._--Ver. 440. He was a robber of Attica, to
    whom reference is made in the Ibis, line 409.]

    [Footnote 84: _Alcathoë._--Ver. 443. Megara, or Alcathoë, which
    was founded by Lelex, was almost destroyed by Minos, and was
    rebuilt by Alcathoüs, the son of Pelops. He, flying from his
    father, on being accused of the murder of his brother Chrysippus,
    retired to the city of Megara, where, having slain a lion which
    was then laying waste that territory, he was held in the highest
    veneration by the inhabitants.]

    [Footnote 85: _Scyron._--Ver. 443. This robber haunted the rocks
    in the neighborhood of Megara, and used to insist on those who
    became his guests washing his feet. This being done upon the
    rocks, Scyron used to kick the strangers into the sea while so
    occupied, where a tortoise lay ready to devour the bodies. Theseus
    killed him, and threw his body down the same rocks, which derived
    their name of Saronic, or Scyronic, from this robber.]

    [Footnote 86: _Anaphe._--Ver. 461. This, and the other islands
    here named, were near the isle of Crete, and perhaps in those
    times were subject to the sway of Minos.]

    [Footnote 87: _Cimolus._--Ver. 463. Pliny the Elder tells us, that
    this island was famous for producing a clay which seems to have
    had much the properties of soap. It was of a grayish white color,
    and was also employed for medicinal purposes.]

    [Footnote 88: _Seriphos._--Ver. 464. Commentators are at a loss to
    know why Seriphos should here have the epithet ‘plana,’ ‘level,’
    inasmuch as it was a very craggy island. It is probably a corrupt
    reading.]

    [Footnote 89: _Sithonian._--Ver. 466. This was Arne, whose story
    is referred to in the Explanation, p. 242 / p. 270.]


EXPLANATION.

  If it is the fact, as many antiquarians suppose, that much of the
  Grecian mythology was derived from that of the Egyptians, there can be
  but little doubt that their system of the Elysian Fields and the
  Infernal Regions was derived from the Egyptian notions on the future
  state of man. The story too, of Cerberus is, perhaps, based upon the
  custom of the Egyptians, who kept dogs to guard the fields or caverns
  in which they kept their mummies.

  It is, however, very possible that the story of Cerberus may have been
  founded upon a fact, or what was believed to be such. There was a
  serpent which haunted the cavern of Tænarus, in Laconia, and ravaged
  the districts adjacent to that promontory. This cave, being generally
  considered to be one of the avenues to the kingdom of Pluto, the poets
  thence derived the notion that this serpent was the guardian of its
  portals. Pausanias observes, that Homer was the first who said that
  Cerberus was a dog; though, in reality, he was a serpent, whose name
  in the Greek language signified ‘one that devours flesh.’ The story
  that Cerberus, with his foam, poisoned the herbs that grew in
  Thessaly, and that the aconite and other poisonous plants were ever
  after common there, is probably based on the simple fact, that those
  herbs were found in great quantities in that region.

  Women, using these herbs in their pretended enchantments, gave ground
  for the stories of the witches of Thessaly, and of their ability to
  bring the moon down to the earth by their spells and incantations;
  which latter notion was probably based on the circumstance, that these
  women used to invoke the Night and the Moon as witnesses of their
  magical operations.


FABLE V. [VII.469-613]

  Minos, having engaged several powers in his interest, and having been
  refused by others, goes to the island of Ægina, where Æacus reigns,
  to endeavor to secure an alliance with that prince; but without
  success. Upon his departure, Cephalus arrives, as ambassador, from
  Athens, and obtains succors from the king; who gives him an account of
  the desolation which a pestilence had formerly made in his country,
  and of the surprising manner in which it had been re-peopled.

But Oliaros,[90] and Didyme, and Tenos,[91] and Andros,[92] and
Gyaros,[93] and Peparethos, fruitful in the smooth olive,[94] do not aid
the Gnossian ships. Then Minos makes for Œnopia,[95] the kingdom of
Æacus, lying to the left. The ancients called it Œnopia, but Æacus
himself called it Ægina, from the name of his mother. The multitude
rushes forth, and desires greatly to know a man of so great celebrity.
Both Telamon,[96] and Peleus, younger than Telamon, and Phocus, the
{king’s} third son, go to meet him. Æacus himself, too, {though} slow
through the infirmity of old age, goes forth, and asks him what is the
reason of his coming? The ruler of a hundred cities, being put in mind
of his fatherly sorrow {for his son}, sighs, and gives him this answer:
“I beg thee to assist arms taken up on account of my son; and be a party
in a war of affection. For his shades do I demand satisfaction.” To him
the grandson of Asopus says, “Thou askest in vain, and for a thing not
to be done by my city; for, indeed, there is no land more closely allied
to the people of Cecropia. Such are {the terms of} our compact.” {Minos}
goes away in sadness, and says, “This compact of thine will cost thee a
dear price;” and he thinks it more expedient to threaten war than to
wage it, and to waste his forces there prematurely.

Even yet may the Lyctian[97] fleet be beheld from the Œnopian walls,
when an Attic ship, speeding onward with full sail, appears, and enters
the friendly harbor, which is carrying Cephalus, and together {with him}
the request of his native country. The youthful sons of Æacus recognize
Cephalus, although seen but after a long period, and give their right
hands, and lead him into the house of their father. The graceful hero,
even still retaining some traces of his former beauty, enters; and,
holding a branch of his country’s olive, being the elder, he has on his
right and left hand the two younger in age, Clytus and Butes, the sons
of Pallas.[98] After their first meeting has had words suitable
{thereto}, Cephalus relates the request of the people of Cecrops, and
begs assistance, and recounts the treaties and alliances of their
forefathers; and he adds, that the subjection of the whole of Achaia is
aimed at. After the eloquence {of Cephalus} has thus promoted the cause
entrusted to him, Æacus, leaning with his left hand on the handle of his
sceptre, says--

“Ask not for assistance, O Athens, but take it, and consider, beyond
doubt, the resources which this island possesses, as thy own, and let
all the forces of my kingdom go {along with thee}. Strength is not
wanting. I have soldiers enough both for my defence, and for {opposing}
the enemy. Thanks to the Gods; this is a prosperous time, and one that
can excuse no refusal of mine.” “Yes, {and} be it so,” says
Cephalus:[99] “and I pray that thy power may increase along with thy
citizens. Indeed, as I came along just now, I received {much} pleasure,
when a number of youths, so comely and so equal in their ages, came
forward to meet me. Yet I miss many from among them, whom I once saw
when I was formerly entertained in this city.” Æacus heaves a sigh, and
thus he says, with mournful voice: “A better fortune will be following a
lamentable beginning; I {only} wish I could relate this to you. I will
now tell it you without any order, that I may not be detaining you by
any long preamble.[100] They are {now} lying as bones and ashes, for
whom thou art inquiring with tenacious memory. And how great a part were
they of my resources that perished! A dreadful pestilence fell upon my
people, through the anger of the vengeful Juno, who hated a country
named[101] from her rival. While the calamity seemed natural, and the
baneful cause of so great destruction was unknown, it was opposed by the
resources of medicine. {But} the havoc exceeded {all} help, which {now}
lay baffled. At first the heaven encompassed the earth with a thick
darkness, and enclosed within its clouds a drowsy heat. And while the
Moon was four times filling her orb by joining her horns, {and}, four
times decreasing, was diminishing her full orb, the hot South winds were
blowing with their deadly blasts. It is known for a fact that the
infection came even into fountains and lakes, and that many thousands of
serpents were wandering over the uncultivated fields, and were tainting
the rivers with their venom. The violence of this sudden distemper was
first discovered by the destruction of dogs, and birds, and sheep, and
oxen, and among the wild beasts. The unfortunate ploughman wonders that
strong oxen fall down at their work, and lie stretched in the middle of
the furrow. {And} while the wool-bearing flocks utter weakly bleatings,
both their wool falls off spontaneously, and their bodies pine away. The
horse, once of high mettle, and of great fame on the course, degenerates
for the {purposes of} victory; and, forgetting his ancient honors, he
groans at the manger, doomed to perish by an inglorious distemper. The
boar remembers not to be angry, nor the hind to trust to her speed, nor
the bears to rush upon the powerful herds.

“A faintness seizes all {animals}; both in the woods, in the fields, and
in the roads, loathsome carcases lie strewed. The air is corrupted with
the smell {of them}. I am relating strange events. The dogs, and the
ravenous birds, and the hoary wolves, touch them not; falling away, they
rot, and, by their exhalations, produce baneful effects, and spread the
contagion far and wide. With more dreadful destruction the pestilence
reaches the wretched husbandmen, and riots within the walls of the
extensive city. At first, the bowels are scorched,[102] and a redness,
and the breath drawn with difficulty, is a sign of the latent flame. The
tongue, {grown} rough, swells; and the parched mouth gapes, with its
throbbing veins; the noxious air, too, is inhaled by the breathing. {The
infected} cannot endure a bed, or any coverings; but they lay their
hardened breasts upon the earth, and their bodies are not made cool by
the ground, but the ground is made hot by their bodies. There is no
physician at hand; the cruel malady breaks out upon even those who
administer remedies; and {their own} arts become an injury to their
owners. The nearer at hand any one is, and the more faithfully he
attends on the sick, the sooner does he come in for his share of the
fatality. And when the hope of recovery is departed, and they see the
end of their malady {only} in death, they indulge their humors, and
there is no concern as to what is to their advantage; for, {indeed},
nothing is to their advantage. All sense, too, of shame being banished,
they lie {promiscuously} close to the fountains and rivers, and deep
wells; and their thirst is not extinguished by drinking, before their
life {is}. Many, overpowered {with the disease}, are unable to arise
thence, and die amid the very water; and yet another even drinks that
{water}. So great, too, is the irksomeness for the wretched {creatures}
of their hated beds, {that} they leap out, or, if their strength forbids
them standing, they roll their bodies upon the ground, and every man
flies from his own dwelling; each one’s house seems fatal to him: and
since the cause of the calamity is unknown, the place that is known is
blamed. You might see persons, half dead, wandering about the roads, as
long as they were able to stand; others, weeping and lying about on the
ground, and rolling their wearied eyes with the dying movement. They
stretch, too, their limbs towards the stars of the overhanging heavens,
breathing forth their lives here and there, where death has overtaken
them.

“What were my feelings then? Were they not such as they ought to be, to
hate life, and to desire to be a sharer with my people? On whichever
side my eyes were turned, there was the multitude strewed {on the
earth}, just as when rotten apples fall from the moved branches, and
acorns from the shaken holm-oak. Thou seest[103] a lofty temple,
opposite {thee}, raised on high with long steps: Jupiter has it {as his
own}. Who did not offer incense at those altars in vain? how often did
the husband, while he was uttering words of entreaty for his wife, {or}
the father for his son, end his life at the altars without prevailing?
in his hand, too, was part of the frankincense found unconsumed! How
often did the bulls, when brought to the temples, while the priest was
making his supplications, and pouring the pure wine between their horns,
fall without waiting for the wound! While I myself was offering
sacrifice to Jupiter, for myself, and my country, and my three sons, the
victim sent forth dismal lowings, and suddenly falling down without any
blow, stained the knives thrust into it, with its scanty blood; the
diseased entrails, too, had lost {all} marks of truth, and the warnings
of the Gods. The baneful malady penetrated to the entrails. I have seen
the carcases lying, thrown out before the sacred doors; before the very
altars, {too}, that death might become more odious[104] {to the Gods}.
Some finish their lives with the halter, and by death dispel the
apprehension of death, and voluntarily invite approaching fate. The
bodies of the dead are not borne out with any funeral rites, according
to the custom; for the {city} gates cannot receive {the multitude of}
the processions. Either unburied they lie upon the ground, or they are
laid on the lofty pyres without the usual honors. And now there is no
distinction, and they struggle for the piles; and they are burnt on
fires that belong to others. They who should weep are wanting; and the
souls of sons, and of husbands, of old and of young, wander about
unlamented: there is not room sufficient for the tombs, nor trees for
the fires.”

    [Footnote 90: _Oliaros._--Ver. 469. This was one of the Cyclades,
    in the Ægean sea; it was colonized by the Sidonians.]

    [Footnote 91: _Tenos._--Ver. 469. This island was famous for a
    temple there, sacred to Neptune.]

    [Footnote 92: _Andros._--Ver. 469. This was an island in the Ægean
    Sea, near Eubœa. It received its name from Andros, the son of
    Anius. The Andrian slave, who gives his name to one of the
    comedies of Terence, was supposed to be a native of this island.]

    [Footnote 93: _Gyaros._--Ver. 470. This was a sterile island among
    the Cyclades; in later times, the Romans made it a penal
    settlement for their criminals. The mice of this island were said
    to be able to gnaw iron; perhaps, because they were starved by
    reason of its unfruitfulness.]

    [Footnote 94: _Smooth olive._--Ver. 470. Clarke translates ‘nitidæ
    olivæ’ ‘the neat olive.’ ‘Nitidus’ here means ‘smooth and
    shining.’]

    [Footnote 95: _Œnopia._--Ver. 473. This was the ancient name of
    the isle of Ægina, in the Saronic Gulf, famous as being the native
    place of the family of the Æacidæ. It obtained its later name from
    Ægina, the daughter of Asopus, and the mother of Æacus, whom
    Jupiter carried thither.]

    [Footnote 96: _Telamon._--Ver. 476. Telamon, Peleus, and Phocus,
    were the three sons of Æacus.]

    [Footnote 97: _Lyctian._--Ver. 490. Lyctus was the name of one of
    the cities of Crete.]

    [Footnote 98: _Pallas._--Ver. 500. This was either Pallas the son
    of Pandion, king of Athens, or of Neleus, the brother of Theseus.
    This Pallas, together with his sons, was afterwards slain by
    Theseus.]

    [Footnote 99: _Cephalus._--Ver. 512. He was the son of Deioneus,
    or according to some writers, of Mercury and Herse, the daughter
    of Cecrops.]

    [Footnote 100: _Long preamble._--Ver. 520. Clarke translates ‘neu
    longâ ambage morer vos,’ ‘that I may not detain you with a
    long-winded detail of it.’]

    [Footnote 101: _Country named._--Ver. 524. This was the island of
    Ægina, so called from the Nymph who was carried thither by
    Jupiter.]

    [Footnote 102: _Bowels are scorched._--Ver. 554. Clarke quaintly
    renders the words ‘viscera torrentur primo.’ ‘first people’s
    bowels are searched;’ perhaps, however, the latter word is a
    misprint for ‘scorched.’]

    [Footnote 103: _Thou seest._--Ver. 587. As Æacus says this, he
    must be supposed to point with his finger towards the temple.]

    [Footnote 104: _More odious._--Ver. 603. Dead bodies were supposed
    to be particularly offensive to the Gods.]


EXPLANATION.

  Minos (most probably the second prince that bore that name), upon his
  accession to the throne, after the death of his father, Lycastus, made
  several conquests in the islands adjoining Crete, where he reigned,
  and, at last, became master of those seas. The strength of his fleet
  is particularly remarked by Thucydides, Apollodorus, and Diodorus
  Siculus.

  The Feast of the Panathenæa being celebrated at Athens, Minos sent his
  son Androgeus to it, who joined as a combatant in the games, and was
  sufficiently skilful to win all the prizes. The glory which he thereby
  acquired, combined with his polished manners, obtained him the
  friendship of the sons of Pallas, the brother of Ægeus. This
  circumstance caused Ægeus to entertain jealous feelings, the more
  especially as he knew that his nephews were conspiring against him.
  Being informed that Androgeus was about to take a journey to Thebes,
  he caused him to be assassinated near Œnoë, a town on the confines of
  Attica. Apollodorus, indeed, says that he was killed by the Bull of
  Marathon, which was then making great ravages in Greece; but it is
  very possible that the Athenians encouraged this belief, with the view
  of screening their king from the infamy of an action so inhuman and
  unjust. Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch agree in stating that Ægeus
  himself caused Androgeus to be murdered.

  On hearing the news of his son’s death, Minos resolved on revenge. He
  ordered a strong fleet to be fitted out, and went in person to several
  courts, to contract alliances, and engage other powers to assist him;
  and this, with the history of the plague at Ægina, forms the subject
  of the present narrative.


FABLE VI. [VII.614-660]

  Jupiter, at the prayer of his son Æacus, transforms the ants that are
  in the hollow of an old oak into men; these, from the Greek name of
  those insects, are called Myrmidons.

“Stupefied by so great an outburst of misery, I said, ‘O Jupiter! if
stories do not falsely say that thou didst come into the embraces of
Ægina, the daughter of Asopus, and thou art not ashamed, great Father,
to be the parent of myself; either restore my people to me, or else bury
me, as well, in the sepulchre.’ He gave a signal by lightnings, and by
propitious thunders. I accepted {the omen}, and I said, ‘I pray that
these may be happy signs of thy intentions: the omen which thou givest
me, I accept as a pledge.’ By chance there was close by, an oak sacred
to Jupiter, of seed from Dodona,[105] but thinly covered with
wide-spreading boughs. Here we beheld some ants, the gatherers of corn,
in a long train, carrying a heavy burden in their little mouths, and
keeping their track in the wrinkled bark. While I was wondering at their
numbers, I said, ‘Do thou, most gracious Father, give me citizens as
many in number, and replenish my empty walls.’ The lofty oak trembled,
and made a noise in its boughs, moving without a breeze. My limbs
quivered, with trembling fear, and my hair stood on an end; yet I gave
kisses to the earth and to the oak, nor did I confess that I had any
hopes; {and} yet I did hope, and I cherished my own wishes in my mind.
Night came on, and sleep seized my body wearied with anxiety. Before my
eyes the same oak seemed to be present, and to bear as many branches,
and as many animals in its branches, and to be trembling with a similar
motion, and to be scattering the grain-bearing troop on the fields
below. These suddenly grew, and seemed greater and greater, and raised
themselves from the ground, and stood with their bodies upright; and
laid aside their leanness, and the {former} number of their feet, and
their sable hue, and assumed in their limbs the human shape.

“Sleep departs. When {now} awake, I censured the vision, and complained
that there was no help for me from the Gods above. But within my palace
there was a great murmur, and I seemed to be hearing the voices of men,
to which I had now become unaccustomed. While I was supposing that
these, too, were {a part} of my dream, lo! Telamon came in haste, and,
opening the door, said, ‘Father, thou wilt see things beyond thy hopes
or expectations. Do come out.’ I did go out, and I beheld and recognized
such men, each in his turn, as I had seemed to behold in the vision of
my sleep. They approached, and saluted me as their king. I offered up
vows to Jupiter, and divided the city and the lands void of their former
tillers, among this new-made people, and I called them Myrmidons,[106]
and did not deprive their name {of the marks} of their origin. Thou hast
beheld their persons. Even still do they retain the manners which they
formerly had; and they are a thrifty race, patient of toil, tenacious of
what they get, and what they get they lay up. These, alike in years and
in courage, will attend thee to the war, as soon as the East wind, which
brought thee prosperously hither (for the East wind had brought him),
shall have changed to the South.”

    [Footnote 105: _From Dodona._--Ver. 623. Dodona was a town of
    Chaonia, in Epirus, so called from Dodone, the daughter of Jupiter
    and Europa. Near it was a temple and a wood sacred to Jupiter,
    which was famous for the number and magnitude of its oaks. Doves
    were said to give oracular responses there, probably from the
    circumstance that the female soothsayers of Thessaly were called
    πελειαδαι. Some writers, however, say that the oaks had the gift
    of speech, combined with that of prophesying.]

    [Footnote 106: _Myrmidons._--Ver. 654. From the Greek word μύρμηξ,
    ‘an ant;’ according to this version of the story.]


EXPLANATION.

  This fable, perhaps, has no other foundation than the retreat of the
  subjects of Æacus into woods and caverns, whence they returned, when
  the contagion had ceased with which their country had been afflicted,
  and when he had nearly lost all hopes of seeing them again. It is
  probable that the old men were carried off by the plague, while the
  young, who had more strength, resisted its power, which circumstance
  would fully account for the active habits of the remaining subjects of
  Æacus. Some writers, however, suppose that the Myrmidons were a
  barbarous, but industrious people of Thessaly, who usually dwelt in
  caves, and who were brought thence by Æacus to people his island,
  which had been made desolate by a pestilence. The similarity of their
  name to the Greek word μύρμηξ, signifying ‘an ant,’ most probably
  gave occasion to the report that Jupiter had changed ants into men.


FABLE VII. [VII.661-793]

  Cephalus, having resisted the advances of Aurora, who has become
  enamoured of him while hunting, returns in disguise to his wife,
  Procris, to try if her affection for him is sincere. She, discovering
  his suspicions, flies to the woods, and becomes a huntress, with the
  determination not to see him again. Afterwards, on becoming reconciled
  to him, she bestows on him a dog and a dart, which Diana had once
  given her. The dog is turned into stone, while hunting a wild beast,
  which Themis has sent to ravage the territories of Thebes, after the
  interpretation of the riddle of the Sphinx, by Œdipus.

In these and other narratives they passed the day. The last part of the
day was spent in feasting, and the night in sleep. The golden Sun had
{now} shed his beams, {when} the East wind was still blowing, and
detained the sails about to return. The sons of Pallas repair to
Cephalus, who was stricken in years. Cephalus and the sons of Pallas,
together {with him}, {come} to the king; but a sound sleep still
possessed the monarch. Phocus, the son of Æacus, received them at the
threshold; for Telamon and his brother were levying men for the war.
Phocus conducted the citizens of Cecrops into an inner room, and a
handsome apartment. Soon as he had sat down with them, he observed that
the grandson of Æolus[107] was holding in his hand a javelin made of an
unknown wood, the point of which was of gold.

Having first spoken a few words in promiscuous conversation, he said,
“I am fond of the forests, and of the chase of wild beasts; still, from
what wood the shaft of the javelin, which thou art holding, is cut,
I have been for some time in doubt; certainly, if it were of wild ash,
it would be of brown color; if of cornel-wood, there would be knots in
it. Whence it comes I am ignorant, but my eyes have not looked upon a
weapon used for a javelin, more beautiful than this.” One of the
Athenian brothers replied, and said, “In it, thou wilt admire its
utility, {even} more than its beauty. Whatever it is aimed at, it
strikes; chance does not guide it when thrown, and it flies back stained
with blood, no one returning it.” Then, indeed, does the Nereian
youth[108] inquire into all particulars, why it was given, and whence
{it came}? who was the author of a present of so great value? What he
asks, {Cephalus} tells him; but as to what he is ashamed to tell, {and}
on what condition he received it, he is silent; and, being touched with
sorrow for the loss of his wife, he thus speaks, with tears bursting
forth: “Son of a Goddess, this weapon (who could have believed it?)
makes me weep, and long will make me do so, if the Fates shall grant me
long to live. ’Twas this that proved the destruction of me and of my
dear wife. Would that I had ever been without this present! Procris was
(if perchance {the fame of} Orithyïa[109] may have more probably reached
thy ears) the sister of Orithyïa, the victim of violence. If you should
choose to compare the face and the manners of the two, she was the more
worthy to be carried off. Her father Erectheus united her to me; love,
{too}, united her to me. I was pronounced happy, and {so} I was. Not
thus did it seem {good} to the Gods; or even now, perhaps, I should be
{so}. The second month was now passing, after the marriage rites, when
the saffron-colored Aurora, dispelling the darkness in the morn, beheld
me, as I was planting nets for the horned deer, from the highest summit
of the ever-blooming Hymettus,[110] and carried me off against my will.
By the permission of the Goddess, let me relate what is true; though she
is comely with her rosy face, {and} though she possesses the confines of
light, and possesses {the confines} of darkness, though she is nourished
with the draughts of nectar, {still} I loved Procris; Procris was {ever}
in my thoughts, Procris was ever on my lips. I alleged the sacred ties
of marriage, our late embraces, and our recent union, and the prior
engagements of my forsaken bed. The Goddess was provoked, and said,
‘Cease thy complaints, ungrateful man; keep thy Procris; but, if my mind
is gifted with foresight, thou wilt wish that thou hadst not had her;’”
and {thus}, in anger, she sent me back to her.

“While I was returning, and was revolving the sayings of the Goddess
within myself, there began to be apprehensions that my wife had not duly
observed the laws of wedlock. Both her beauty and her age bade me be
apprehensive of her infidelity; {yet} her virtue forbade me to believe
it. But yet, I had been absent; and besides, she, from whom I was {just}
returning, was an example of {such} criminality: but we that are in
love, apprehend all {mishaps}. I {then} endeavored to discover that, by
reason of which I must feel anguish, and by bribes to make attempts[111]
upon her chaste constancy. Aurora encouraged this apprehension, and
changed my shape, {as} I seemed {then} to perceive. I entered Athens,
the city of Pallas, unknown {to any one}, and I went into my own house.
The house itself was without fault, and gave indications of chastity,
and was in concern for the carrying off of its master.

“Having, with difficulty, made my way to the daughter of Erectheus by
means of a thousand artifices, soon as I beheld her, I was amazed, and
was nearly abandoning my projected trial of her constancy; with
difficulty did I restrain myself from telling the truth, with difficulty
from giving her the kisses which I ought. She was in sorrow; but yet no
one could be more beautiful than she, {even} in her sadness; and she was
consuming with regret for her husband, torn from her. {Only} think,
Phocus, how great was the beauty of her, whom even sorrow did so much
become. Why should I tell how often her chaste manners repulsed {all} my
attempts? How often she said, ‘I am reserved for {but} one, wherever he
is; for that one do I reserve my joys.’ For whom, in his senses, would
not that trial of her fidelity have been sufficiently great? {Yet} I was
not content; and I strove to wound myself, while I was promising to give
vast sums for {but one} night, and forced her at last to waver, by
increasing the reward. {On this} I cried out, ‘Lo! I, the gallant in
disguise, to my sorrow, {and} lavish in promises, to my misery, am thy
real husband; thou treacherous woman! thou art caught, {and} I the
witness.’ She said nothing: only, overwhelmed with silent shame, she
fled from the house of treachery, together with her wicked husband; and
from her resentment against me, abhorring the whole race of men, she
used to wander[112] on the mountains, employed in the pursuits of Diana.
Then, a more violent flame penetrated to my bones, thus deserted.
I begged forgiveness, and owned myself in fault; and that I too might
have yielded to a similar fault, on presents being made; if presents so
large had been offered. Upon my confessing this, having first revenged
her offended modesty, she was restored to me, and passed the pleasant
years in harmony with me. She gave me, besides, as though in herself she
had given me but a small present, a dog as a gift, which when her own
Cynthia had presented to her, she had said, ‘He will excel all dogs in
running.’ She gave her, too, a javelin, which, as thou seest, I am
carrying in my hand.

“Dost thou inquire what was the fortune of the other present--hear
{then}. Thou wilt be astonished at the novelty of the wondrous fact. The
son of Laius[113] had solved the verses not understood by the wit of
others before him; and the mysterious propounder lay precipitated,
forgetful of her riddle. But the genial Themis,[114] forsooth, did not
leave such things unrevenged. Immediately another plague was sent forth
against Aonian Thebes; and many of the peasants fed the savage monster,
both by the destruction of their cattle, and their own as well. We, the
neighboring youth, came together, and enclosed the extensive fields with
toils. With a light bound it leaped over the nets, and passed over the
topmost barriers of the toils that were set. The couples were taken off
the dogs, from which, as they followed, it fled, and eluded them, no
otherwise than as a winged bird. I myself, too, was requested, with
eager demands, for my {dog} Lælaps [{Tempest}]; that was the name of {my
wife’s} present. For some time already had he been struggling to get
free from the couples, and strained them with his neck, as they detained
him. Scarce was he well let loose; and {yet} we could not now tell where
he was; the warm dust had the prints of his feet, {but} he himself was
snatched from our eyes. A spear does not fly swifter than he {did}, nor
pellets whirled from the twisted sling, nor the light arrow from the
Gortynian bow.[115] The top of a hill, {standing} in the middle, looks
down upon the plains below. Thither I mount, and I enjoy the sight of an
unusual chase; wherein the wild beast[116] one while seemed to be
caught, at another to elude his very bite; and it does not fly in a
direct course, and straight onward, but deceives his mouth, as he
pursues it, and returns in circles, that its enemy may not have his full
career against it. He keeps close to it, and pursues it, a match for
him; and {though} like as if he has caught it, {still} he fails to catch
it, and vainly snaps at the air. I was {now} turning to the resources of
my javelin; while my right hand was poising it, {and} while I was
attempting to insert my fingers in the thongs {of it}, I turned away my
eyes; and again I had directed them, recalled to the same spot, when,
{most} wondrous, I beheld two marble statues in the middle of the plain;
you would think the one was flying, the other barking {in pursuit}. Some
God undoubtedly, if any God {really} did attend to them, desired them
both to remain unconquered in this contest of speed.”

    [Footnote 107: _Æolus._--Ver. 672. Apollodorus reckons Deioneus,
    the parent of Cephalus, among the children of Apollo.]

    [Footnote 108: _Nereian youth._--Ver. 685. Phocus, who was the son
    of Æacus, by Psamathe, the daughter of Nereus.]

    [Footnote 109: _Orithyïa._--Ver. 695. She was the daughter of
    Erectheus, king of Athens, and was carried off by Boreas, as
    already stated.]

    [Footnote 110: _Hymettus._--Ver. 702. This was a mountain of
    Attica, famous for its honey and its marble.]

    [Footnote 111: _To make attempts._--Ver. 721. Tzetzes informs us
    that she was found by her husband in company with a young man
    named Pteleon, who had made her a present of a golden wreath.
    Antoninus Liberalis says, that her husband tried her fidelity by
    offering her a bribe, through the medium of a slave.]

    [Footnote 112: _Used to wander._--Ver. 746. Some writers say that
    she fled to Crete, on which, Diana, who was aware of the
    attachment of Aurora for her husband, made her a present of a
    javelin, which no person could escape; and gave her the dog
    Lælaps, which no wild beast could outrun. Such is the version
    given by Hyginus. But Apollodorus and Antoninus Liberalis say,
    that she fled to Minos, who, prevailing over her virtue, made her
    a present of the dog and the javelin. Afterwards, presenting
    herself before her husband, disguised as a huntress, she gave him
    proofs of the efficacy of them; and upon his requesting her to
    give them to him, she exacted, as a condition, what must,
    apparently, have resulted in a breach of the laws of conjugal
    fidelity. On his assenting to the proposal, she discovered
    herself, and afterwards made him the presents which he desired.]

    [Footnote 113: _The son of Laius._--Ver. 759. Œdipus was the son
    of Laius, king of Thebes. The Sphinx was a monster, the offspring
    of Typhon and Echidna, which haunted a mountain near Thebes. Œdipus
    solved the riddle which it proposed for solution, on which the
    monster precipitated itself from a rock. It had the face of a
    woman, the wings of a bird, and the extremities of a lion.]

    [Footnote 114: _Genial Themis._--Ver. 762. Themis had a very
    ancient oracle in Bœotia.]

    [Footnote 115: _Gortynian bow._--Ver. 778. Crete was called
    Gortynian, from Gortys or Gortyna, one of its cities, which was
    famous for the skill of its inhabitants in archery.]

    [Footnote 116: _The wild beast._--Ver. 782. Antoninus Liberalis
    and Apollodorus say that this was a fox, which was called ‘the
    Teumesian,’ from Teumesus, a mountain of Bœotia, and that the
    Thebans, to appease its voracity, were wont to give it a child to
    devour every month. Palæphatus says that it was not a wild beast,
    but a man called Alopis.]


EXPLANATION.

  There were two princes of the name of Cephalus; one, the son of
  Mercury and Herse, the daughter of Cecrops; the other, the son of
  Deïoneus, king of Phocis, and Diomeda, the daughter of Xuthus. The
  first was carried off by Aurora, and went to live with her in Syria;
  the second married Procris, the daughter of Erectheus, king of Athens.
  Though Apollodorus seems, in the first instance, to follow this
  genealogy, in his third book he confounds the actions of those two
  princes. Ovid and other writers have spoken only of the son of
  Deïoneus, who was carried off by Aurora, and having left her,
  according to them, returned to Procris.


FABLE VIII. [VII.794-865]

  Procris, jealous of Cephalus, in her turn, goes to the forest, which
  she supposes to be the scene of his infidelity, to surprise him.
  Hearing the rustling noise which she makes in the thicket, where she
  lies concealed, he imagines it is a wild beast, and, hurling the
  javelin, which she has formerly given to him, he kills her.

Thus far {did he speak}; and {then} he was silent. “But,” said Phocus,
“what fault is there in that javelin?” {whereupon} he thus informed him
of the demerits of the javelin. “Let my joys, Phocus, be the first
portion of my sorrowful story. These will I first relate. O son of
Æacus, I delight to remember the happy time, during which, for the first
years {after my marriage}, I was completely blessed in my wife, {and}
she was happy in her husband. A mutual kindness and social love
possessed us both. Neither would she have preferred the bed of Jupiter
before my love; nor was there any woman that could have captivated me,
not {even} if Venus herself had come. Equal flames fired the breasts {of
us both}. The Sun striking the tops of the mountains with his early
rays, I was wont generally to go with youthful ardor into the woods, to
hunt; but I neither suffered my servants, nor my horses, nor my
quick-scented hounds to go {with me}, nor the knotty nets to attend me;
I was safe with my javelin. But when my right hand was satiated with the
slaughter of wild beasts, I betook myself to the cool spots and the
shade, and the breeze which was breathing forth from the cool valleys.
The gentle breeze was sought by me, in the midst of the heat. For the
breeze was I awaiting; that was a refreshment after my toils: ‘Come,
breeze,’ I was wont to sing, for I remember it {full well}, ‘and, most
grateful, refresh me, and enter my breast; and, as thou art wont, be
willing to assuage the heat with which I am parched.’ Perhaps I may have
added ({for} so my destiny prompted me) many words of endearment, and I
may have been accustomed to say, ‘Thou art my great delight; thou dost
refresh and cherish me; thou makest me to love the woods and lonely
haunts, and thy breath is ever courted by my face.’ I was not aware that
some one was giving an ear, deceived by these ambiguous words; and
thinking the name of the breeze, so often called upon by me, to be that
of a Nymph, he believed some Nymph was beloved by me.

“The rash informer of an imaginary crime immediately went to Procris,
and with his whispering tongue related what he had heard. Love is a
credulous thing. When it was told her, she fell down fainting, with
sudden grief; and coming to, after a long time, she declared that she
was wretched, and {born} to a cruel destiny; and she complained about my
constancy. Excited by a groundless charge,[117] she dreads that which,
{indeed}, is nothing; {and} fears a name without a body; and, in her
wretchedness, grieves as though about a real rival. Yet she is often in
doubt, and, in her extreme wretchedness, hopes she may be deceived, and
denies credit to the information; and unless she beholds it herself,
will not pass sentence upon the criminality of her husband. The
following light of the morning had banished the night, when I sallied
forth, and sought the woods; and being victorious in the fields, I said,
‘Come, breeze, and relieve my pain;’ and suddenly I seemed to hear I
know not what groans in the midst of my words; yet I said, ‘Come hither,
most delightful {breeze}.’ Again, the falling leaves making a gentle
noise, I thought it was a wild beast, and I discharged my flying weapon.
It was Procris; and receiving the wound in the middle of her breast, she
cried out, ‘Ah, wretched me!’ When the voice of my attached wife was
heard, headlong and distracted, I ran towards {that} voice. I found her
dying, and staining her scattered vestments with blood, and drawing her
own present (ah, wretched me!) from out of her wound; I lifted up her
body, dearer to me than my own, in my guilty arms, and I bound up her
cruel wounds with the garments torn from my bosom; and I endeavored to
stanch the blood, and besought her that she would not forsake me, {thus}
criminal, by her death. She, wanting strength, and now expiring, forced
herself to utter these few words:

“‘I suppliantly beseech thee, by the ties of our marriage, and by the
Gods above, and my own Gods, and if I have deserved anything well of
thee, by that {as well}, and by the cause of my death, my love even now
enduring, while I am perishing, do not allow the Nymph Aura [{breeze}]
to share with thee my marriage ties.’ She {thus} spoke; and then, at
last, I perceived the mistake of the name, and informed her of it. But
what avails informing her? She sinks; and her little strength flies,
together with her blood. And so long as she can look on anything, she
gazes on me, and breathes out upon me, on my face,[118] her unhappy
life; but she seems to die free from care, and with a more contented
look.”

In tears, the hero is relating these things to them, as they weep, and,
lo! Æacus enters, with his two sons,[119] and his soldiers newly levied;
which Cephalus received, {furnished} with valorous arms.

    [Footnote 117: _Groundless charge._--Ver. 829. Possibly, Ovid may
    intend to imply that her jealousy received an additional stimulus
    from the similarity of the name ‘Aura’ to that of her former
    rival, Aurora.]

    [Footnote 118: _On my face._--Ver. 861. He alludes to the
    prevalent custom of catching the breath of the dying person in the
    mouth.]

    [Footnote 119: _His two sons._--Ver. 864. These were Telamon and
    Peleus, who had levied these troops.]


EXPLANATION.

  The love which Cephalus, the son of Deïoneus, bore for the chase,
  causing him to rise early in the morning for the enjoyment of his
  sport, was the origin of the story of his love for Aurora. His wife,
  Procris, as Apollodorus tells us, carried on an amour with Pteleon,
  and, probably, caused that report to be spread abroad, to divert
  attention from her own intrigue. Cephalus, suspecting his wife’s
  infidelity, she fled to the court of the second Minos, king of Crete,
  who fell in love with her. Having, thereby, incurred the resentment of
  Pasiphaë, who adopted several methods to destroy her rival, and, among
  others, spread poison in her bed, she left Crete, and returned to
  Thoricus, the place of her former residence, where she was reconciled
  to Cephalus, and gave him the celebrated dog and javelin mentioned by
  Ovid.

  The poets tell us, that this dog was made by Vulcan, and presented by
  him to Jupiter, who gave him to Europa; and that coming to the hands
  of her son Minos, he presented it to Procris. The wild beast, which
  ravaged the country, and was pursued by the dog of Procris, and which
  some writers tell us was a monstrous fox, was probably a pirate or sea
  robber; and being, perhaps, pursued by some Cretan officer of Minos,
  who escorted Procris back to her country, on their vessels being
  shipwrecked near some rocks, it gave occasion to the story that the
  dog and the monster had been changed into stone. Indeed, Tzetzes says
  distinctly, that the dog was called Cyon, and the monster, or fox,
  Alopis; and he also says that Cyon was the captain who brought Procris
  back from Crete. It being believed that resentment had some share in
  causing the death of Procris, the court of the Areiopagus condemned
  Cephalus to perpetual banishment. The island of Cephalenia, which
  received its name from him, having been given to him by Amphitryon, he
  retired to it, where his son Celeus afterwards succeeded him.




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Transcriber’s Note on the Text:

Ovid’s _Metamorphoses_, translated by Henry Thomas Riley (1816-1878,
B.A. 1840, M.A. 1859), was originally published in 1851 as part of
Bohn’s Classical Library. This e-text, covering Books I-VII, uses
material from two reprints:

George Bell (London, 1893, one volume). This edition is described on
its title page as “reprinted from the stereotype plates”. These may have
been the original 1851 plates, since the entire _Classical Library_ had
been sold by Bohn to Bell & Daldy, later George Bell.

David McKay (Philadelphia, 1899, two volumes), with introduction by
Edward Brooks. The introductory material from the Bell/Bohn edition is
absent. This edition was freshly typeset, correcting a few errors in the
Bell/Bohn edition but also introducing a number of new errors.

The McKay edition was the “base” of the e-text. The scanned, proofread
text was computer-checked against the text of the Bell edition, and
differences were in turn checked against page images of the printed
books. Where appropriate, the text was checked against one or more
versions of the Latin original. Most differences are trivial. McKay uses
American spelling such as “honor” for “honour”, and compound forms such
as “northwest” for “north-west”; punctuation is often changed, though
some apparent variations may be due to the quality of printing and
reproduction. Non-trivial differences are listed in the Errata, below.

Note that the title page of the Bell edition lists the translator as
“Henry T. Riley, B.A.”, while the McKay edition has “M.A.” The sequence
of dates-- original publication 1851, Riley M.A. 1859, reprint 1893--
supports the idea that the Bell edition is a strict facsimile.

       *       *       *       *       *
           *       *       *       *

_Errors and Anomalies noted by transcriber_

Errors are grouped thematically:
  significant errors and inconsistencies;
  variant spellings, including name forms;
  Greek;
  punctuation;
  line and footnote numbering.
Abbreviations in the form “II.XIV Exp” mean “Book II, Fable XIV,
Explanation” (appended to most Fables); “Syn” means Synopsis (prefaced
to each Fable).


_Shared errors and irregularities (present in both McKay and Bell
editions), with original text in brackets []_

I.XII: the light breeze spread behind her her careless locks
  _read as “spread her careless locks behind her”_
  _in McKay, “her her” is printed at a line break and can easily be
  mistaken for an error_
I.XII Footnote 82, Pope quotation
  _McKay reads “trembling dove” and “reached her”; other
  modernizations in spelling are shared by both editions_
I.V: the dreadful carcasses
  _anomalous spelling: both editions normally use “carcase(s)”_
II.I _and_ Footnote 16: Hæmus [Hœmus]
II.I Exp: Herse, the daughter of Cecrops (Hersa)
II.III Footnote 57: 2 Kings, xx. 11 [xx. 7]
II.XIV Exp: which Hesychius calls ... [Hesychus]
III.IV Footnote 62: ... Æneid (l. 620) [l. 260]
IV.I Footnote 3: Alcathoë, Leucippe, and Aristippe
  _text unchanged; may be error for “Alcithoë”_
IV.II Footnote 39: ‘Virgo victa nitore Dei.’ [uitore]
V.V Footnote 60: The zone, or girdle ... was much worn
  _Bell has “was much wore“; McKay has “were much worn”_
V.VI Footnote 75: adjoining to the Elean territory [Eleon]
VI.I: the sley separates the warp
  _this technical term is missing from many dictionaries_
VI.III Footnote 47: ‘brekekekekex koäx koäx.’
  _text unchanged (one syllable too many)_
VII.IV Footnote 89: the Explanation, p. 242 / p. 270
  _final paragraph of the Explanation of Fable VII.III_
VII.V Footnote 92: The Andrian slave, who gives his name [its name]


_Errors or variations introduced by McKay, with original text in
brackets []. Unless otherwise noted, the Bell version was treated as
the correct form. Italics in the translation (here shown in braces {})
are considered non-trivial because they indicate text added by the
translator, not present in the Latin original._

I.II Footnote 19: she was supposed to have her habitation
  [habitations]
I.II Footnote 22: Ver. 64. [34]
I.III Exp: the ground became unfruitful [become]
--: as they really happened [happen]
I. VI Footnote 38: Di majorum gentium [Di imajorum]
  _intended text may have been “Dii majorum”_
I.VIII Exp: ... that the sea joined its waters
  [... the sea joined in its waters]
--: the tradition here followed by Ovid [that tradition]
I.IX: {to endure} these sorrows [to {endure}]
I.X Exp: where he built a temple to Jupiter [when]
I.XII Footnotes 83, 84: Clarke [Clark]
I.XII: Thou, the same, shalt stand [shall]
I.XIII Footnote 92: mount Æta [Ætna]
  _the reference is to the Greek mountain now spelled “Eta”_
I.XIII Footnote 96: Pliny the Elder (Book iii. ch. 23)
  ... Aous [Aeus]
  _editions of Pliny vary; the cited passage may also be found as
  iii.58 or iii.145_
I.XIII: the wild beasts alone [beast]
I.XVI Exp: Argus was the son of Arestor [Argos]
I.XVII: Thou ... believest thy mother in all things [believes]
I.XVII Footnote 115: He was king of Ethiopia [Ethiopa]

II.I: Ignorant what to do, he is stupefied
  _McKay reads “stupei/fied” at page break_
  _Bell has “stupified” here, “stupefied” elsewhere_
II.I Footnote 13: Thessaly [Thessalis]
II.I Footnote 18: This was a mountain [A mountain]
II.I Footnote 24: _Cithæron._ [Cithœron]
II.I Footnote 41: Cape Matapan [Metapan]
II.I Exp: the Greek form of it [from]
II.II: a long tract through the air [track]
  _Latin: longo ... tractu_
II.VII: Larissæan[69] Coronis [Larissæn]
II.IX: the womb of his mother [the wound]
II.XI: The son of Atlas laughed [sun]
II.XIII Syn: her sister’s apartment [apartments]
  _both editions consistently use “apartment”_
II.XIV: which thou seest [seeest]
  _this spelling is normal in Bell, but McKay uses “seest” elsewhere_
II.XIV Exp: Palæphatus and Tzetzes suggest [suggests]

III.I Footnote 1: ‘Thebe,’ which signified ‘an ox.’ [signifies]
III.II: the victorious enemy of immense size [in immense size]
III.II Exp: sows the teeth [their]
III.III Footnote 24: _Phyale._ [Phyule]
III.III: Now thou mayst tell [mayest]
III.III Footnote 39: _Pœmenis._ [Parmenis]
III.III: Leucon,[46] with snow-white hair [Luecon]
--: her Cyprian brother, Harpalus,[52] [Harpaulus]
--: Lachne,[54] with a wire-haired body [white-haired]
  _Bell text was substituted, but Latin simply has “hirsuta”_
--: and Hylactor,[57] [Hylector]
III.III, Footnote 56: Ver. 224. [254]
III.V: become a woman from a man [became]
  _participle: “having become”_
III.VI: with the nearer flame did she burn
  _word “did” illegible_
III.VII: grief is taking away [has taken]
  _reading “has taken” would require a metrically impossible Latin
  “adēmit” for “adĭmit”_
III.VIII, Footnote 89: placed in the number of the Constellations
  [the number of Constellations]
III.VIII: ‘Lo! we are here,’ says Opheltes, my chief mate [Ophletes]
--: this Alcimedon approved of [Alcemedon]
--: now confessing that he has offended [had offended]
III.VIII Exp: ... tore him in pieces. Pausanias, however ...
  [to pieces, Pausanius]
--: The story ... is supposed by Bochart [Bochârt]

IV.I Footnote 1: ... Pausanias says that the Bœotians
  [Pausanius]
IV.I Footnote 8: _Thyoneus._ [Phyoneus]
IV.I: the grass wet with rime [went]
--: they determine, in the silent night [determined]
--: The arrangement suits them [arrangements]
--: the most unhappy cause and companion [anhappy]
IV.I Footnote 22: _The lead decaying._
  _footnote marker missing_
IV.II Syn: the intrigue between Mars and Venus [betwen]
IV.II: nor {yet} Clytie [not]
IV.II Footnote 37: Abas, Acrisius, Danaë, Perseus [Danae, Persus]
IV.II: with her twirling spindle [with twirling spindle]
IV.V Footnote 48: (laborabat) ... ‘auxiliares.’
  [(laborat) ... ‘auxiliaries.’]
IV.VII: And what madness can do [what madness man can do]
  _“madness” is the grammatical subject: “quidque furor valeat”_
IV.VII Footnote 57: These were the Furies [furies]
IV.VII Footnote 63: Tisiphone importuna [importune]
IV.VII Exp: by whom he had Helle and Phryxus [Phrysus]
IV.VIII Exp: Bochart says [Bochard]
  _last letter of “Bochart” illegible in Bell_
IV.X: Soon as the descendant of Abas beheld her [So soon as]
  _Bell wording adopted for consistency_
--: When he has lighted {on the ground}
  _“on the ground” not italicized_
IV.X Footnote 84: præpetes [præptes]
IV.X: on the silent plain [on the salient plain]
  _“salient” is clearly wrong, but “silent plain” is also an odd
  translation of “vacuo ... arvo”_
IV.X Exp: more common than it had been before [more common that]

V.I: both by his merits and his words [its merits]
V.I Footnote 7: _Syene._ ... (Book i. Ep. 5, l. 79)
  _text reads “Book i. Ep. i. 79”; in the Bell printing the letter
  “l” is damaged and could be misread as “i”_
V.I: thou, both her uncle and her betrothed [though, both]
V.I Footnote 8: a swingeing bowl [swinging]
V.I: the middle of the neck {of Pettalus} [Pattalus]
V.II Footnote 32: Ver. 302. [303]
V.III Footnote 43: pressed down by Lilybœum [Lilybæum]
V.IV: both her mother and her companions,[48] [and companions]
V.IV Footnote 50: _The Palici._ [Palaci]
V.IV Footnote 51: Dionysus [Dionysius]
  _the names “Bacchius” and “Bacchus” in the same footnote are each
  correct as printed_
V.IV Footnote 57: Cinnus [Cinus]
V.IV Footnote 61: tunc denique raptam Scisset [raptum]
  _Bell also has “tum” for “tunc”; both words are valid_
V.IV Exp: the Isis of the Egyptians [the Isis of Egyptians]
--: the following circumstance: [circumstances:]
V.V Syn: Ceres proceeds in a fruitless search [the fruitless]
--: The Sirens have wings [rings]
V.V: it is {a mark of} affection [a {mark of}]
V.V: Footnote 67: The Greek name of a lizard being ἀσκάλαβος
  [a lizard ἀσκάλαβος]
V.VI: Erymanthus and Elis [Eyramanthus]
--: Ho, Arethusa! Ho, Arethusa!
  _text reads “Ho, Arethusa! Ho, Ar-/thusa!” at line break_
V.VI Exp: the oracle of Delphi [at Delphi]
V.VII: entrusted {to him} [to {him}]
V.VII Exp: which signified either ‘a winged dragon,’ or ‘a ship fastened
  with iron nails or bolts.’ [signifies ... nails and bolts]
--: explainer of the mysteries of Eleusis [Eleusi]

VI.I Footnote 3: the purple [purples]
VI.I Exp: unless we should prefer [he]
--: St. Augustine [Augustin]
--: calling their attention to agricultural pursuits [agricultual]
--: had himself taken the figure
  _text has “the // the” at page break_
--: numerous in the interior of Africa [is the]
VI.II: what {I wish} may fall upon herself [what I {wish}]
--: their wonted exercise {of riding} [of {riding}]
VI.III: her suckling breasts [sucking]
VI.IV: after he had drawn his clothes from his shoulder towards his
  breast [shoulders]
  _The Latin reads “... umeroque suas a pectore [or: ad pectora]
  postquam / deduxit [or: diduxit] vestes ebur ostendisse sinistro”. It
  is possible to construct a Latin variation that would translate as
  “from his shoulders”, but editorial or typographic error is a much
  likelier explanation._
VI.IV Exp: Livy and Quintus Curtius [Quintius]
--: Marsyas may have been rash enough [Maryas]
VI.V: beyond what is becoming [his]
VI.VI: forced {from her} [{from} her]
--: from excess of affection [from the excess]
VI.VII Footnote 73: and in the Art of Love [and the Art ...]

VII.I: {is wont} to increase [is {wont}]
VII.II: a counterfeited quarrel [counterfeit]
--: the guards together with their king [with the king]
  _Latin “rege suo”_
--: they turn away their eyes [they, turning away their eyes]
  _Latin “oculosque reflectunt”_
VII.III Footnote 62: ... This was not Thessalian Tempe
  _“w” in “was” invisible_
VII.III Footnote 69: who was said to have lived there
  [who was to have]
VII.III Exp: the young princess perished in the greatest misery
  _text has “in / in” at line break_
--: the account of the women of Cos being changed [accounts]
VII.IV Footnote 75: dragged from Tartarus by Hercules [Herculea]
VII.IV Footnote 86: Anaphe [Anophe]
VII.V Syn: the island of Ægina [islands]
VII.V: the grandson of Asopus says, “Thou askest in vain [asketh]
--: the souls of sons, and of husbands [the souls of the sons]
VII.VI Exp: gave occasion to the report [of the report]
VII.VII Syn: discovering his suspicions [suspicion]
VII.VII: {standing} in the middle [{standiny}]
VII.VIII Exp: as Apollodorus tells us [tell]


_Corrections made by McKay, with Bell/Bohn text shown in brackets_

III.VI Exp: phenomenon (_two occurrences_)
  _Bell spells “phœnomenon” (error for “phænomenon”)_
IV.IV Exp: beloved by Smilax [Simlax]
IV.V heading:
  _Bell misprints “Fable IV”_
IV.VII Exp: Learchus and Melicerta [Melacerta]
V.I Footnote 17: _Now deceived._ [How deceived]
  _footnote marker missing in Bell_
VI.II Exp: Valerius Flaccus relates the sorrow of Clytie [Clyte]
VI.VI Exp: the ancients thereby portrayed [pourtrayed]
VI.VII Footnote 74: _The Ciconians._
  _footnote marker missing in Bell_
VII.II Footnote 40: _And his hair._
  _footnote marker missing in Bell_


_Variations_

The readings listed here are “wrong” in the sense that they are
different from what is found in the Bell/Bohn text, but they are
acceptable translations of the Latin. The Bell text is shown in
brackets.

III.II: The Earth, too, scraped with the scales [his scales]
--: nor engage thyself in civil war [a civil war]
--: the youths ... beat with throbbing breast [breasts]
III.III: to bathe her virgin limbs in clear water [the clear water]
III.VIII: in vain try to restrain him [strive]
--: I made observations with my eyes [observation]
IV.I: the Sun, with its rays [his rays]
IV.VII: foam formed in the hollowed deep [hallowed]
  _The Latin has at least three variant readings: “in medio ...
  profundo”, “immenso ... profundo” and “dīo profundo”. Riley’s
  translation must have been based on the “dio” reading._
IV.X: the name both of her country and herself
  [... of the country and of herself]
V.IV: grasp {in your hand} [{in your hands}]
  _the Latin has only the verb “prendere” (grasp)_
V.VI: thy darts enclosed in a quiver [the quiver]
VI.III: oft to sit on the bank of the pool [often]
VI.V: delay will be tedious to me, and [to me. And]
VI.VI: she prepared for a horrible deed [horrid]
VII.II: to go far thence [afar]


_Unusual or Inconsistent Spellings and Name Forms_

Dieresis is unpredictable in both editions; forms such as “Phaeton”,
“Ocyrrhöe” and “Danäe” are common, and have been silently corrected.
Since the ligatures “æ” and “œ” are used consistently, dieresis can be
assumed even when not explicitly indicated.

_Unless otherwise noted, comments apply to both texts._

III.VIII Footnote 92: the buccanier Morgan
IV.VIII Exp: they beheld stedfastly
V.II, VI.V: villany

Cæus, Calisto, Lilybœus, Phyale, Phryxus, Progne
  _these forms are used consistently; the original forms are Cœus
  (Κοιος), Callisto (Καλλιστω), Lilybæus (Λιλυβαιος), Phiale (Φιαλη),
  Phrixus (Φριξος), Procne (Προκνη). Note that in the main text, the
  name “Callisto” is never used, probably on metrical grounds._
Damasicthon, Erectheus _and similar_
  _spellings in “-cth-” used consistently in place of “-chth-” (-χθ-).
Achæa/Achaia; Ethiopia/Æthiopia; Phocea/Phocæa; Proserpine/Proserpina
  _both forms occur, with McKay text following Bell in all cases_


_Greek_

_Most errors in Greek words can be attributed to a typesetter who did
not know Greek. Errors and omissions in diacritical marks have been
silently corrected; only the more significant errors are listed._

I.VII Footnote 47: ἐν τῇ ἔρα ναίειν [ἵρα ναιειν (McKay)]
II.XII Footnote 84: δέξαι [δεζαί (McKay)]
II.XIV Exp: Ἑλλωτὶς
  _both texts read Ἐλλωτὶς with smooth breathing_
III.III Footnote 50: θοὸς
  _both texts read θοὺς_
III.IV Exp: Πανβασίλεια [Πανβασιγεια (McKay)]
III.VI Footnote 68: Λείριον [Λείοιον (McKay)]
III.VIII Footnote 86: ἀκοίτης
  _McKay reads ἁκόιτης with rough breathing; both have misplaced accent_
III.VIII Footnote 87: ὠλέναι
  _both texts read ωλήναι; McKay has initial ώ for ὠ_
IV.I Footnote 5: Εὐοῖ Βάκχε, ὦ Ἰακχε, Ιώ Βάκχε, Εὐοῖ σαβοῖ
  _text given as printed; exact form (with consistent capitalization)
  is probably Εὐοῖ Βάκχε, Ὦ Ἴακχε, Ἰώ Βάκχε, Εὐοῖ σαβαῖ_
IV.I Footnote 6: λύειν [κύειν (McKay)]
V.II Footnote 31: χαῖρε, χαῖρε [χαῖρε, χσἴρε (McKay)]
VII.VI Footnote 105: πελειαδαι
  _text unchanged, but intended form is probably πελειάδες_
VII.VI Exp: μύρμηξ [μύρμης (McKay)]


_Punctuation_

_The McKay (Philadelphia) edition sometimes uses double quotes where the
Bell (London) edition used single quotes. These are not individually
noted; neither is variation between colons and semicolons, and random
use of commas. Invisible punctuation at line-end has been supplied from
Bell._

_Shared errors and irregularities in punctuation_

IV.VII Footnote 69: _Guiltless granddaughter._
  _both print “grand-daughter” with anomalous hyphen_
VI.III: ‘Young man, there is no mountain Divinity for this altar....
  _This embedded single quote was apparently abandoned by the editor;
  each double quote for the remainder of the Fable should be accompanied
  by a single quote._

I.XII Footnote 80: quod amor non est / medicabilis herbis.’
IV.I: our words to our loving ears.’
IV.IV: I will entertain your minds with a pleasing novelty.”
IV.X: {if} preserved by my valor.”
IV.X: those snakes which she {thus} produced.”
V.II: oft have the Gods above entered more humble cottages.’
V.II: Let the Nymphs decide the contest.”
  _close quote missing in all_

_Punctuation errors introduced in McKay edition_

[Verso of title page] Sherman & Co., Philadelphia
  _period invisible_
[General Introduction] about, ninety miles from Rome
  _here and elsewhere, commas are as in the original_
I.VI Exp: for it repenteth me that I have made them.’” [made them’]
  _Bell omits quotes for Biblical citation_
III.III: Thoüs,[50] [Thoüs,[50],]
IV.II: and he, no longer delaying [and, he,]
--: ‘I am he .... thou art pleasing to me.’ [‘I am .... to me.”]
IV.VII: with newly formed wings? [wings!]
V.VI: Why art thou, Arethusa, a sacred spring?’
  _missing close quote_
V.VI Exp: a mere fable; [fable!]
VI.II: she says, “What madness is this
  _missing open quote_
--: exult and triumph, my victorious enemy. But why victorious?
  [enemy, But why v’ctorious?]
VI.III: hold out their little arms from my bosom’
  _missing close quote_
VII.IV Exp: Egyptian notions on the future state of man. [of man,]
VII.V Syn: the surprising manner in which it had been re-peopled.
  _invisible hyphen_
VII.V: says Cephalus:[99] “and I pray
  _missing open quote_
--: not room sufficient for the tombs, nor trees for the fires.”
  _missing close quote_
VII.VI: shall have changed to the South.”
  _missing close quote_


_Footnote Numbers_

_Errors in McKay edition_

Bk. I, ll. 516-531 (Fable I.XII)
  Footnotes on this page were printed as 66-69 instead of 76-79
  (e-text note numbers 78-81); other pages were not affected.
Bk. IV, note 17*.
  The footnote tag was numbered as a second 17; the note itself was
  numbered the first of two 18.

_Adjustments_

In the original text-- both editions-- footnote numbers began from 1 in
each Book, and started over when the count passed 99. Almost all Books
had duplications in the sequence, usually in the form “17*”. In this
e-text, footnotes have been renumbered consecutively within each Book,
without duplication; Books I and VII continue past 100.

  Interpolations:
  Bk. I: 51*, 67*
  Bk. II: 4*, 71*
  Bk. III: 72*, 88*
  Bk. IV: 17*, 37*, 77*
  Bk. V: 46*, 76*
  Bk. VI: (no change from original sequence)
  Bk. VII: 4*, 73*, 2* (second series)


_Line Numbers (printed as page headers)_

Line numbers in the McKay edition were generally correct, although
different from those in Bell due to changes in pagination. Some book
numbers in the McKay edition were misprinted:

  [II. 550-564] _printed as Bk. XV_
  [II. 605-632] _printed as Bk. XV_
  [II. 632-651] _printed as Bk. XIV_
  [II. 652-675] _printed as Bk. XV_
  [II. 676-693] _printed as Bk. XV_
  [IV. 233-237] _printed as Bk. I_
  [V. 95-123] _printed as Bk. IV_
  [V. 123-151] _printed as Bk. IV_
  [V. 350-373] _printed as Bk. IV_






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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books VIII-XV
    
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Title: The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books VIII-XV

Author: Ovid

Translator: Henry T. Riley

Release date: July 16, 2008 [eBook #26073]
                Most recently updated: October 28, 2023

Language: English

Credits: Louise Hope, Ted Garvin and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID, BOOKS VIII-XV ***




[Transcriber’s Note:

This e-text covers the second half, Books VIII-XV, of Henry T. Riley’s
1851 translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The first half, Books I-VII,
is already available from Project Gutenberg as e-text 21765. Note that
this text, unlike the earlier one, is based solely on the 1893 George
Bell reprint.

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  œ, Œ (oe ligature)
  κείρω, ἀκονιτὶ

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Line numbers from the Latin poem--not its prose translation--were
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In Transcriber’s Notes, references to Clarke are from the third
edition (1752).]




                      The

                 METAMORPHOSES

                       of

                      OVID.


    Literally Translated into English Prose,
      with Copious Notes and Explanations,


            BY HENRY T. RILEY, B.A.
           of Clare Hall, Cambridge.


                    LONDON:

  GEORGE BELL & SONS, YORK ST., COVENT GARDEN,
                 AND NEW YORK.

                     1893.




                    LONDON:

      Reprinted from the Stereotype Plates
          by Wm. Clowes & Sons, Ltd.,
       Stamford Street and Charing Cross.




[The Introduction is included here for completeness, omitting the
Synopses of Books I-VII.]


INTRODUCTION.


The Metamorphoses of Ovid are a compendium of the Mythological
narratives of ancient Greece and Rome, so ingeniously framed, as to
embrace a large amount of information upon almost every subject
connected with the learning, traditions, manners, and customs of
antiquity, and have afforded a fertile field of investigation to the
learned of the civilized world. To present to the public a faithful
translation of a work, universally esteemed, not only for its varied
information, but as being the masterpiece of one of the greatest Poets
of ancient Rome, is the object of the present volume.

To render the work, which, from its nature and design, must, of
necessity, be replete with matter of obscure meaning, more inviting to
the scholar, and more intelligible to those who are unversed in
Classical literature, the translation is accompanied with Notes and
Explanations, which, it is believed, will be found to throw considerable
light upon the origin and meaning of some of the traditions of heathen
Mythology.

In the translation, the text of the Delphin edition has been generally
adopted; and no deviation has been made from it, except in a few
instances, where the reason for such a step is stated in the notes;
at the same time, the texts of Burmann and Gierig have throughout been
carefully consulted. The several editions vary materially in respect to
punctuation; the Translator has consequently used his own discretion in
adopting that which seemed to him the most fully to convey in each
passage the intended meaning of the writer.

The Metamorphoses of Ovid have been frequently translated into the
English language. On referring to Mr. Bohn’s excellent Catalogue of the
Greek and Latin Classics and their Translations, we find that the whole
of the work has been twice translated into English Prose, while five
translations in Verse are there enumerated. A prose version of the
Metamorphoses was published by Joseph Davidson, about the middle of
the last century, which professes to be “as near the original as the
different idioms of the Latin and English will allow;” and to be
“printed for the use of schools, as well as of private gentlemen.” A few
moments’ perusal of this work will satisfy the reader that it has not
the slightest pretension to be considered a literal translation, while,
by its departure from the strict letter of the author, it has gained
nothing in elegance of diction. It is accompanied by “critical,
historical, geographical, and classical notes in English, from the best
Commentators, both ancient and modern, beside a great number of notes,
entirely new;” but notwithstanding this announcement, these annotations
will be found to be but few in number, and, with some exceptions in the
early part of the volume, to throw very little light on the obscurities
of the text. A fifth edition of this translation was published so
recently as 1822, but without any improvement, beyond the furbishing up
of the old-fashioned language of the original preface. A far more
literal translation of the Metamorphoses is that by John Clarke, which
was first published about the year 1735, and had attained to a seventh
edition in 1779. Although this version may be pronounced very nearly to
fulfil the promise set forth in its title page, of being “as literal as
possible,” still, from the singular inelegance of its style, and the
fact of its being couched in the conversational language of the early
part of the last century, and being unaccompanied by any attempt at
explanation, it may safely be pronounced to be ill adapted to the
requirements of the present age. Indeed, it would not, perhaps, be too
much to assert, that, although the translator may, in his own words,
“have done an acceptable service to such gentlemen as are desirous of
regaining or improving the skill they acquired at school,” he has, in
many instances, burlesqued rather than translated his author. Some of
the curiosities of his version will be found set forth in the notes;
but, for the purpose of the more readily justifying this assertion,
a few of them are adduced: the word “nitidus” is always rendered “neat,”
whether applied to a fish, a cow, a chariot, a laurel, the steps of a
temple, or the art of wrestling. He renders “horridus,” “in a rude
pickle;” “virgo” is generally translated “the young lady;” “vir” is
“a gentleman;” “senex” and “senior” are indifferently “the old blade,”
“the old fellow,” or “the old gentleman;” while “summa arx” is “the very
tip-top.” “Misera” is “poor soul;” “exsilio” means “to bounce forth;”
“pellex” is “a miss;” “lumina” are “the peepers;” “turbatum fugere” is
“to scower off in a mighty bustle;” “confundor” is “to be jumbled;” and
“squalidus” is “in a sorry pickle.” “Importuna” is “a plaguy baggage;”
“adulterium” is rendered “her pranks;” “ambages” becomes either “a long
rabble of words,” “a long-winded detail,” or “a tale of a tub;”
“miserabile carmen” is “a dismal ditty;” “increpare hos” is “to rattle
these blades;” “penetralia” means “the parlour;” while “accingere,” more
literally than elegantly, is translated “buckle to.” “Situs” is “nasty
stuff;” “oscula jungere” is “to tip him a kiss;” “pingue ingenium” is a
circumlocution for “a blockhead;” “anilia instrumenta” are “his old
woman’s accoutrements;” and “repetito munere Bacchi” is conveyed to the
sense of the reader as, “they return again to their bottle, and take the
other glass.” These are but a specimen of the blemishes which disfigure
the most literal of the English translations of the Metamorphoses.

  [Transcriber’s Note:

  The Clarke “translation” was published as part of a student edition
  of Ovid’s _Metamorphoses_, with the Latin on the top half of the page,
  the English below. It was not intended as an independent text.]

In the year 1656, a little volume was published, by J[ohn] B[ulloker,]
entitled “Ovid’s Metamorphosis, translated grammatically, and, according
to the propriety of our English tongue, so far as grammar and the verse
will bear, written chiefly for the use of schools, to be used according
to the directions in the preface to the painfull schoolmaster, and more
fully in the book called, ‘Ludus Literarius, or the Grammar school,
chap. 8.’” Notwithstanding a title so pretentious, it contains a
translation of no more than the first 567 lines of the first Book,
executed in a fanciful and pedantic manner; and its rarity is now the
only merit of the volume. A literal interlinear translation of the first
Book “on the plan recommended by Mr. Locke,” was published in 1839,
which had been already preceded by “a selection from the Metamorphoses
of Ovid, adapted to the Hamiltonian system, by a literal and interlineal
translation,” published by James Hamilton, the author of the Hamiltonian
system. This work contains selections only from the first six books, and
consequently embraces but a very small portion of the entire work.

For the better elucidation of the different fabulous narratives and
allusions, explanations have been added, which are principally derived
from the writings of Herodotus, Apollodorus, Pausanias, Dio Cassius,
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Strabo, Hyginus, Nonnus, and others of the
historians, philosophers, and mythologists of antiquity. A great number
of these illustrations are collected in the elaborate edition of Ovid,
published by the Abbé Banier, one of the most learned scholars of the
last century; who has, therein, and in his “Explanations of the Fables
of Antiquity,” with indefatigable labour and research, culled from the
works of ancient authors, all such information as he considered likely
to throw any light upon the Mythology and history of Greece and Rome.

This course has been adopted, because it was considered that a statement
of the opinions of contemporary authors would be the most likely to
enable the reader to form his own ideas upon the various subjects
presented to his notice. Indeed, except in two or three instances, space
has been found too limited to allow of more than an occasional reference
to the opinions of modern scholars. Such being the object of the
explanations, the reader will not be surprised at the absence of
critical and lengthened discussions on many of those moot points of
Mythology and early history which have occupied, with no very positive
result, the attention of Niebuhr, Lobeck, Müller, Buttmann, and many
other scholars of profound learning.




A SYNOPTICAL VIEW

OF THE

PRINCIPAL TRANSFORMATIONS MENTIONED IN

THE METAMORPHOSES.