Apuleius: METAMORPHOSES

[4.28] Erant in quadam civitate rex et regina. hi tres numero filias forma conspicuas habuere, sed maiores quidem natu, quamvis gratissima specie, idonee tamen celebrari posse laudibus humanis credebantur, at vero puellae iunioris tam praecipua, tam praeclara pulchritudo nec exprimi ac ne sufficienter quidem laudari sermonis humani penuria poterat. multi denique civium et advenae copiosi, quos eximii spectaculi rumor studiosa celebritate congregabat, inaccessae formonsitatis admiratione stupidi et admoventes oribus suis dexteram primore digito in erectum pollicem residente ut ipsam prorsus deam Venerem venerabantur religiosis adorationibus.

[4.28] There were in a certain city a king and a queen. These had three daughters, conspicuous in beauty, three in number; but the elder ones by birth, although of most pleasing appearance, were nevertheless believed to be able to be suitably celebrated by human praises; whereas the beauty of the younger girl, so outstanding, so illustrious, could neither be expressed nor even sufficiently praised by the penury of human speech. Many, finally, of the citizens and plentiful strangers, whom the rumor of so exceptional a spectacle gathered in studious celebrity, stood stupefied in admiration of inaccessible beauty, and, bringing their right hand to their lips, the forefinger resting upon the erect thumb, they venerated her with religious adorations as though she were the goddess Venus herself.

iamque proximas civitates et attiguas regiones fama pervaserat deam, quam caerulum profundum pelagi peperit et ros spumantium fluctuum educavit, iam numinis sui passim tributa venia in mediis conversari populi coetibus, vel certe rursum novo caelestium stillarum germine non maria sed terras Venerem aliam virginali flore praeditam pullulasse.

And now the nearest cities and the contiguous regions the report had pervaded: that the goddess, whom the cerulean deep of the sea bore and the dew of the foaming waves reared, now, leave having been granted by her own numen, was moving about everywhere amid the very gatherings of the people; or else, again, that from a new germ of celestial droplets, not the seas but the lands had sprouted another Venus, endowed with virginal bloom.

[29] Sic immensum procedit in dies opinio, sic insulas iam proxumas et terrae plusculum provinciasque plurimas fama porrecta pervagatur. iam multi mortalium longis itineribus atque altissimis maris meatibus ad saeculi specimen gloriosum confluebant. Paphon nemo, Cnidon nemo ac ne ipsa quidem Cythera ad conspectum deae Veneris navigabant; sacra praetereuntur, templa deformantur, pulvinaria proteruntur, caerimoniae negleguntur; incoronata simulacra et arae viduae frigido cinere foedatae.

[29] Thus the immense repute proceeds day by day, thus the report, stretched forth, ranges now through the nearest islands and a good part of the mainland and very many provinces. Already many of mortals, by long journeys and by the very deep passages of the sea, were flocking to the age’s glorious showpiece. No one was sailing to Paphos, no one to Cnidus, and not even to Cythera itself for the sight of the goddess Venus; sacred rites are passed over, temples are disfigured, the divine couches are trampled, ceremonies are neglected; the images are ungarlanded, and the altars, widowed, defiled with cold ash.

puellae supplicatur et in humanis vultibus deae tantae numina placantur, et in matutino progressu virginis victimis et epulis Veneris absentis nomen propitiatur, iamque per plateas commeantem populi frequenter floribus sertis et solutis adprecantur. haec honorum caelestium ad puellae mortalis cultum inmodica translatio verae Veneris vehementer incendit animos et inpatiens indignationis capite quassanti fremens altius sic secum disserit:

they supplicate the girl, and in human faces the numina of so great a goddess are placated, and in the matutinal progress of the virgin, with victims and banquets the name of absent Venus is propitiated; and now, as she goes through the streets, the peoples frequently beseech her with flowers, in garlands woven and blossoms loose. this immoderate translation of celestial honors to the cult of a mortal girl vehemently inflamed the spirit of the true Venus, and, impatient in her indignation, shaking her head and growling more deeply, she thus discoursed with herself:

[30] 'En rerum naturae prisca parens, en elementorum origo initialis, en orbis totius alma Venus, quae cum mortali puella partiario maiestatis honore tractor. et nomen meum caelo conditum terrenis sordibus profanatur! nimirum communi numinis piamento vicariae venerationis incertum sustinebo et imaginem meam circumferet puella moritura.

[30] 'Behold the ancient parent of the nature of things, behold the initial origin of the elements, behold nourishing Venus of the whole orb, who am dragged into a partitionary honor of majesty with a mortal girl. And my name, laid up in heaven, is profaned by earthly filth! Forsooth, shall I endure, by a common propitiation of the numen, the uncertainty of vicarious veneration, and shall a girl doomed to die carry about my image?

frustra me pastor ille, cuius iustitiam fidemque magnus comprobavit Iuppiter, ob eximiam speciem tantis praetulit deabus. sed non adeo gaudens ista, quaecumque est, meos honores usurpabit: iam faxo huius etiam ipsius inlicitae formonsitatis paeniteat.' et vocat confestim puerum suum pinnatum illum et satis temerarium, qui malis suis moribus contempta disciplina publica, flammis et sagittis armatus, per alienas domos nocte discurrens et omnium matrimonia corrumpens impune committit tanta flagitia et nihil prorsus boni facit. hunc, quanquam genuina licentia procacem, verbis quoque insuper stimulat et perducit ad illam civitatem et Psychen—hoc enim nomine puella nuncupabatur—

in vain did that shepherd, whose justice and fidelity the great Jupiter approved, prefer me to such great goddesses on account of exceptional beauty. but not to that extent shall that girl, whoever she is, rejoicing, usurp my honors: I shall forthwith make sure that she even repent of this very illicit beauty.' and she instantly calls her boy, that winged and quite rash one, who, by his evil habits and with public discipline scorned, armed with flames and arrows, running by night through other people’s houses and corrupting all marriages, commits with impunity such flagitious outrages and does absolutely nothing good. him, although insolent by inborn license, she moreover goads with words and conducts to that city and to Psyche—for by this name the girl was called—

[31] coram ostendit et tota illa perlata de formositatis aemulatione fabula gemens ac fremens indignatione: 'per ego te,' inquit, 'maternae caritatis foedera deprecor, per tuae sagittae dulcia vulnera, per flammae istius mellitas uredines, vindictam tuae parenti, sed plenam tribue et in pulchritudinem contumacem severiter vindica; idque unum et pro omnibus unicum volens effice: virgo ista amore flagrantissimo teneatur hominis extremi, quem et dignitatis et patrimonii simul et incolumitatis ipsius Fortuna damnavit, tamque infimi ut per totum orbem non inveniat miseriae suae comparem.' sic effata et osculis hiantibus filium diu ac pressule saviata proximas oras reflui litoris petit plantisque roseis vibrantium fluctuum summo rore calcato ecce iam profundi maris sudo resedit vertice. et ipsum quod incipit velle en statim, quasi pridem praeceperit, non moratur marinum obsequium. adsunt Nerei filiae chorum canentes et Portunus caerulis barbis hispidus et gravis piscoso sinu Salacia et auriga parvulus delphini Palaemon.

[31] she showed her face-to-face, and, the whole tale delivered about the emulation of formosity, groaning and roaring with indignation: ‘by you, I beseech,’ she says, ‘by the bonds of maternal charity, by the sweet wounds of your shaft, by the honey-sweet scorchings of that flame, grant vindication to your parent—nay, full—and punish with severity that contumacious beauty; and bring about this one thing, willing it as the one in place of all: let that maiden be held by a most burning love for the lowest of men, one whom Fortune has condemned alike of dignity and patrimony and even of his own safety, and of so abject a station that through the whole world he may not find a peer to his misery.’ Having so spoken, and with gaping kisses long and closely having kissed her son, she seeks the nearest shores of the ebbing strand, and, her rosy soles treading the topmost dew of the quivering waves, behold, now she sat upon the clear crest of the deep sea. And the very thing which she begins to wish—lo, at once, as if she had long since commanded it—the marine attendance does not delay. There are present the daughters of Nereus singing a chorus, and Portunus, rough with cerulean beards, and Salacia, weighty with a fishy bosom, and Palaemon, the little charioteer of the dolphin.

iam passim maria persultantes Tritonum catervae: hic concha sonaci leniter bucinat, ille serico tegmine flagrantiae solis obsistit inimici, alius sub oculis dominae speculum progerit, curru biiuges alii subnatant. talis ad Oceanum pergentem Venerem comitatur exercitus.

already everywhere, leaping across the seas, bands of Tritons: here one with a resounding conch softly trumpets, there another with a silken covering withstands the blaze of the inimical sun, another under his mistress’s eyes proffers a mirror, others, yoked as a pair, swim beneath the chariot. Such an army accompanies Venus as she proceeds toward Ocean.

[32] Interea Psyche cum sua sibi perspicua pulchritudine nullum decoris sui fructum percipit. spectatur ab omnibus, laudatur ab omnibus, nec quisquam non rex, non regius, nec de plebe saltem cupiens eius nuptiarum petitor accedit. mirantur quidem divinam speciem, sed ut simulacrum fabre politum mirantur omnes.

[32] Meanwhile Psyche, with her perspicuous beauty, reaps no fruit of her comeliness. She is gazed at by all, she is lauded by all, yet no one—neither king, nor of the royal house, nor even from the plebs—comes forward as a suitor desiring her nuptials. They indeed marvel at the divine aspect, but they all marvel at it as at a statue skillfully polished.

olim duae maiores sorores, quarum temperatam formonsitatem nulli diffamarant populi, procis regibus desponsae iam beatas nuptias adeptae, sed Psyche virgo vidua domi residens deflet desertam suam solitudinem aegra corporis, animi saucia, et quamvis gentibus totis complacitam odit in se suam formonsitatem. sic infortunatissimae filiae miserrimus pater suspectatis caelestibus odiis et irae superum metuens, dei Milesii vetustissimum percontatur oraculum et a tanto numine precibus et victimis ingratae virgini petit nuptias et maritum. sed Apollo, quanquam Graecus et Ionicus, propter Milesiae conditorem sic Latina sorte respondit:

once the two elder sisters, whose well-tempered beauty no peoples defamed, betrothed to royal suitors, had already attained blessed nuptials; but Psyche, a maiden widowed, sitting at home, laments her forsaken solitude, sick in body, wounded in spirit, and although pleasing to whole nations, she hates in herself her own beauty. thus the most miserable father of the most ill-fortuned daughter, heavenly hatreds suspected and fearing the wrath of the gods above, consults the most ancient oracle of the Milesian god, and from so great a numen, with prayers and victims, seeks for the ungraced maiden a marriage and a husband. but Apollo, although Greek and Ionian, on account of the founder of Miletus, thus answered in a Latin oracle:

[33] 'montis in excelsi scopulo, rex, siste puellam
    ornatam mundo funerei thalami.
nec speres generum mortali stirpe creatum,
    sed saevum atque ferum vipereumque malum,
quod pinnis volitans super aethera cuncta fatigat
    flammaque et ferro singula debilitat,
quod tremit ipse Iovis, quo numina terrificantur
     fluminaque horrescunt et Stygiae tenebrae.'

[33] 'on the crag of a lofty mountain, king, set the girl,
    adorned with the adornment of a funereal bridal chamber.
nor hope for a son-in-law begotten of mortal stock,
    but a savage and wild and viperish evil,
which, flying with wings, wearies all things above the ether
    and with flame and iron enfeebles each thing,
at whom Jupiter himself trembles, by whom the divinities are terrified
     and the rivers shudder and the Stygian shadows.'

Rex olim beatus affatu sanctae vaticinationis accepto pigens tristisque retro domum pergit suaeque coniugi praecepta sortis enodat infaustae. maeretur, fletur, lamentatur diebus plusculis. sed dirae sortis iam urget taeter effectus.

The king, once blessed, after receiving the utterance of the holy vaticination, sluggish and sad goes back home, and he unravels to his wife the precepts of the ill-omened lot. There is mourning, there is weeping, there is lamentation for several days. But now the hideous effect of the dire fate presses.

iam feralium nuptiarum miserrimae virgini choragium struitur, iam taedae lumen atrae fuliginis cinere marcescit, et sonus tibiae zygiae mutatur in querulum Ludii modum cantusque laetus hymenaei lugubri finitur ululatu et puella nuptura deterget lacrimas ipso suo flammeo. sic adfectae domus triste fatum cuncta etiam civitas congemebat luctuque publico confestim congruens edicitur iustitium.

Already for the most miserable maiden the apparatus of the funereal nuptials is being set in array; already the light of the torch withers, with the ash of black soot; and the sound of the bridal yoke-pipe is changed into the plaintive Lydian mode, and the joyful hymenaeal song is finished with a lugubrious ululation, and the girl about to be wed wipes away her tears with her very bridal veil. Thus at the afflicted house’s sad fate the whole city too was groaning together, and, forthwith corresponding to the public mourning, a suspension of public business is decreed.

[34] Sed monitis caelestibus parendi necessitas misellam Psychen ad destinatam poenam efflagitabat. perfectis igitur feralis thalami cum summo maerore sollemnibus toto prosequente populo vivum producitur funus et lacrimosa Psyche comitatur non nuptias sed exequias suas. ac dum maesti parentes et tanto malo perciti nefarium facinus perficere cunctantur, ipsa illa filia talibus eos adhortatur vocibus: 'Quid infelicem senectam fletu diutino cruciatis?

[34] But the necessity of obeying the celestial monitions was demanding the poor little Psyche for the destined punishment. Therefore, the solemn rites of the funereal bridal-chamber having been completed with the greatest grief, with the whole people attending, a living funeral is led forth, and tearful Psyche accompanies not her nuptials but her own exequies. And while her sad parents, stirred by so great an evil, hesitate to consummate the nefarious deed, that very daughter exhorts them with such words: 'Why do you torture your unhappy old age with long-continued weeping?

quid spiritum vestrum, qui magis meus est, crebris eiulatibus fatigatis? quid lacrimis inefficacibus ora mihi veneranda foedatis? quid laceratis in vestris oculis mea lumina?

why do you weary your spirit—which is more mine—with frequent ululations? why do you with ineffectual tears defile the faces venerable to me? why do you lacerate my lights (my eyes) before your own eyes?

quid canitiem scinditis? quid pectora, quid ubera sancta tunditis? haec erunt vobis egregiae formonsitatis meae praeclara praemia.

Why do you rend your gray hair? Why do you beat your breasts, why your sacred breasts? These will be for you the splendid rewards of my outstanding form and beauty.

invidiae nefariae letali plaga percussi sero sentitis. cum gentes et populi celebrarent nos divinis honoribus, cum novam me Venerem ore consono nuncuparent, tunc dolere, tunc flere, tunc me iam quasi peremptam lugere debuistis. iam sentio, iam video solo me nomine Veneris perisse.

You, struck by the lethal blow of nefarious envy, realize it too late. When nations and peoples were celebrating us with divine honors, when with one voice they were proclaiming me the new Venus, then you ought to have grieved, then to have wept, then to have mourned me already as though slain. Now I feel, now I see that I have perished by the name of Venus alone.

ducite me et cui sors addixit scopulo sistite. festino felices istas nuptias obire, festino generosum illum maritum meum videre. quid differo, quid detrecto venientem, qui totius orbis exitio natus est?'

lead me, and set me on the crag to which the lot has assigned me. I hasten to go to meet those happy nuptials, I hasten to see that noble husband of mine. Why do I delay, why do I refuse the one coming, who was born for the destruction of the whole world?'

[35] Sic profata virgo conticuit ingressuque iam valido pompae populi prosequentis sese miscuit. itur ad constitutum scopulum montis ardui, cuius in summo cacumine statutam puellam cuncti deserunt, taedasque nuptiales, quibus praeluxerant, ibidem lacrimis suis extinctas relinquentes deiectis capitibus domuitionem parant. et miseri quidem parentes eius tanta clade defessi, clausae domus abstrusi tenebris, perpetuae nocti sese dedidere.

[35] Thus having spoken, the maiden fell silent, and, as the procession of the accompanying people now advanced with firm step, she mingled herself with it. They go to the appointed crag of the arduous mountain, and on its highest summit, the girl having been set in place, all abandon her; and the nuptial torches, with which they had lit the way before, leaving them there quenched by their tears, with heads cast down they prepare their home-going. And indeed her wretched parents, wearied by so great a disaster, hidden in the darkness of a shut-up house, surrendered themselves to perpetual night.

Psychen autem paventem ac trepidam et in ipso scopuli vertice deflentem mitis aura molliter spirantis Zephyri, vibratis hinc inde laciniis et reflato sinu sensim levatam suo tranqulllo spiritu vehens paulatim per devexa rupis excelsae, vallis subditae florentis cespitis gremio leniter delapsam reclinat.

Psyche, however, quaking and trembling and weeping on the very summit of the crag, the gentle aura of Zephyr breathing softly—her garment’s fringes fluttering here and there and her bosom blown back—was little by little lifted; and he, bearing her on his tranquil breath gradually down the declivities of the lofty rock, gently reclined her, as she glided down, into the lap of the subjacent valley, upon the flowering turf.

[5.1] Psyche teneris et herbosis locis in ipso toro roscidi graminis suave recubans, tanta mentis perturbatione sedata, dulce conquievit. iamque sufficienti recreata somno placido resurgit animo. videt lucum proceris et vastis arboribus consitum, videt fontem vitreo latice perlucidum medio luci meditullio.

[5.1] Psyche, in tender and grassy places, sweetly reclining upon the very couch of dewy grass, her so great perturbation of mind soothed, rested sweetly. And now, refreshed by sufficient placid sleep, she rises again in spirit. She sees a grove planted with tall and vast trees; she sees a spring, pellucid with vitreous liquid, in the very midmost center of the grove.

prope fontis adlapsum domus regia est, aedificata non humanis manibus sed divinis artibus. iam scies ab introitu primo dei cuiuspiam luculentum et amoenum videre te diversorium. nam summa laquearia citro et ebore curiose cavata subeunt aureae columnae, parietes omnes argenteo caelamine conteguntur bestiis et id genus pecudibus occurrentibus ob os introeuntium.

near the lapping of the spring there is a royal house, built not by human hands but by divine arts. already from the very first entry you will know that you see the splendid and pleasant lodging of some god. for golden columns support the highest coffered ceilings, intricately carved in citrus-wood and ivory; all the walls are covered with argent chasing, with beasts and flocks of that kind running forward to meet the very face of those entering.

mirus prorsum homo, immo semideus vel certe deus qui [magnae artis] suptilitate tantum efferavit argentum. enimvero pavimenta ipsa lapide pretioso caesim deminuto in varia picturae genera discriminantur: vehementer, iterum ac saepius beatos illos, qui super gemmas et monilia calcant. iam ceterae partes longe lateque dispositae domus sine pretio pretiosae totique parietes solidati massis aureis splendore proprio coruscant, ut diem suum sibi domus faciat licet sole nolente: sic cubicula, sic porticus, sic ipsae balneae fulgurant.

a wondrous outright man, nay a demigod or surely a god, who by the subtlety of [great art] has so animated the silver to wildness. indeed, the pavements themselves, with precious stone cut piecemeal, are discriminated into various kinds of picture: exceedingly, again and again, blessed are they who tread upon gems and necklaces. now the other parts of the house, disposed far and wide, are precious beyond price, and all the walls, consolidated with masses of gold, coruscate with their own splendor, so that the house makes a day for itself even if the sun be unwilling: thus the bedchambers, thus the porticoes, thus the baths themselves flash.

nec setius opes ceterae maiestati domus respondent, ut equidem illud recte videatur ad conversationem humanam magno Iovi fabricatum caeleste palatium.

none the less do the rest of the riches correspond to the majesty of the house, so that indeed that celestial palace seems rightly to have been fabricated for human conversation, a heavenly palace for great Jove.

[2] Invitata Psyche talium locorum oblectatione propius accessit et paulo fidentior intra limen sese facit; mox prolectante studio pulcherrimae visionis rimatur singula et altrinsecus aedium horrea sublimi fabrica perfecta magnisque congesta gazis conspicit. nec est quicquam quod ibi non est. sed praeter ceteram tantarum divitiarum admirationem hoc erat praecipue mirificum, quod nullo vinculo, nullo claustro, nullo custode totius orbis thensaurus ille muniebatur.

[2] Invited by the delight of such places, Psyche came nearer and, a little more confident, makes herself within the threshold; soon, as the zeal enticed by the most beautiful vision drew her on, she examines each thing, and on the farther side of the house she beholds storehouses completed with sublime workmanship and piled with great treasures. Nor is there anything that is not there. But beyond all the rest of her admiration for such great riches, this was especially wondrous: that by no bond, by no bolt, by no guard was that treasure‑house of the whole world being secured.

haec ei summa cum voluptate visenti offert sese vox quaedam corporis sui nuda et 'quid,' inquit, 'domina, tantis obstupescis opibus? tua sunt haec omnia. prohinc cubiculo te refer et lectulo lassitudinem refove et ex arbitrio lavacrum pete.

as she was viewing these things with the highest delight, there presented itself to her a certain voice, stripped of its own body, and it said, 'Why, mistress, are you stupefied at such opulence? All these things are yours. Therefore withdraw to the bedchamber and on the little bed refresh your weariness, and at your pleasure seek the bath.'

nos, quarum voces accipis, tuae famulae sedulo tibi praeministrabimus nec corporis curatae tibi regales epulae morabuntur.

we, whose voices you receive, your handmaids, will assiduously minister to you, nor will the regal banquets, prepared for the care of your body, be delayed.

[3] Sensit Psyche divinae providentiae beatitudinem monitusque, voces informes audiens, et prius somno et mox lavacro fatigationem sui diluit, visoque statim proximo semirotundo suggestu, propter instrumentum cenatorium rata refectui suo commodum, libens accumbit. et ilico vini nectarei eduliumque variorum fercula copiosa nullo serviente, sed tantum spiritu quodam impulsa subministrantur. nec quemquam tamen illa videre poterat, sed verba tantum audiebat excidentia et solas voces famulas habebat.

[3] Psyche perceived the beatitude of divine providence and, admonished, hearing formless voices, she washed away her weariness first with sleep and soon with a bath; and immediately, seeing a nearby semicircular dais, judging it convenient for her refreshment on account of the dining apparatus, she gladly reclined. And forthwith copious courses of nectarous wine and of various edibles are supplied, with no servant attending, but driven and ministered only by a certain spirit. Yet she could see no one at all, but heard only words as they dropped forth, and had only voices for handmaids.

post opimas dapes quidam introcessit et cantavit invisus, et alius citharam pulsavit, quae videbatur nec ipsa. tunc modulatae multitudinis conferta vox aures eius affertur, ut, quamvis hominum nemo pareret, chorus tamen esse pateret.

after the opulent feasts, someone came in and sang unseen, and another struck the lyre, which itself did not appear. then the full voice of a modulated multitude was brought to her ears, so that, although no human beings appeared, nevertheless it was evident that there was a chorus.

[4] Finitis voluptatibus vespera suadente concedit Psyche cubitum. iamque provecta nocte clemens quidam sonus aures eius accedit. tunc virginitati suae pro tanta solitudine metuens et pavet et horrescit et quovis malo plus timet quod ignorat.

[4] With the pleasures finished, evening urging, Psyche retires to bed. And now, with the night advanced, a certain gentle sound comes to her ears. Then, fearing for her virginity on account of such solitude, she both trembles and shudders, and she fears, more than any evil, what she does not know.

iamque aderat ignobilis maritus et torum inscenderat et uxorem sibi Psychen fecerat et ante lucis exortum propere discesserat. statim voces cubiculo praestolatae novam nuptam interfectae virginitatis curant. haec diutino tempore sic agebantur.

and now the unknown husband was present and had mounted the bed and had made Psyche his wife, and before the rising of the light he had hastily departed. at once the voices that had been waiting in the bedchamber tend to the new bride, in regard to her deflowered virginity. these things were thus carried on for a long time.

atque ut est natura redditum, novitas per assiduam consuetudinem delectationem ei commendarat et sonus vocis incertae solitudinis erat solacium.

and, as is nature’s way, the novelty through assiduous custom had commended itself as a delectation to her, and the sound of an uncertain voice was a solace for solitude.

Interea parentes eius indefesso luctu atque maerore consenescebant, latiusque porrecta fama sorores illae maiores cuncta cognorant propereque maestae atque lugubres deserto lare certatim ad parentum suorum conspectum adfatumque perrexerant.

Meanwhile her parents were growing old with indefatigable mourning and grief, and as the report was spread more widely, those elder sisters had learned everything, and, promptly, sad and lugubrious, with their hearth deserted, they had gone, vying with one another, to the sight and address of their parents.

[5] Ea nocte ad suam Psychen sic infit maritus namque praeter oculos et manibus et auribus is [nihil minus] sentiebatur: 'Psyche dulcissima et cara uxor, exitiabile tibi periculum minatur fortuna saevior quod observandum pressiore cautela censeo. sorores iam tuae mortis opinione turbatae tuumque vestigium requirentes scopulum istum protinus aderunt, quarum si quas forte lamentationes acceperis, neque respondeas, immo nec prospicias omnino; ceterum mihi quidem gravissimum dolorem, tibi vero summum creabis exitium.' Annuit et ex arbitrio mariti se facturam spopondit, sed eo simul cum nocte dilapso diem totum lacrimis ac plangoribus misella consumit, se nunc maxime prorsus perisse iterans, quae beati carceris custodia septa et humanae conversationis colloquio viduata nec sororibus quidem suis de se maerentibus opem salutarem ferre ac ne videre eas quidem omnino posset. nec lavacro nec cibo nec ulla denique refectione recreata flens ubertim decessit ad somnum.

[5] That night her husband thus begins to his Psyche—for, except to her eyes, he was perceived none the less by her hands and ears: 'Psyche, sweetest and dear wife, a ruinous peril is menaced to you by a fiercer Fortune, which I judge must be observed with closer caution. Your sisters, now disturbed by the supposition of your death and searching out your trace, will straightway be present at that crag; if you should by chance catch any of their lamentations, do not answer—nay, do not even look out at all; otherwise you will create for me indeed the gravest pain, but for yourself the utmost destruction.' She nodded assent and promised that she would act according to her husband’s will, but when he slipped away together with the night, the poor little wretch consumed the whole day with tears and beatings of the breast, repeating that now at last she had utterly perished—she who, enclosed by the custody of a blessed prison and bereft of the colloquy of human society, could not even bring saving help to her own sisters mourning for her, indeed could not at all even see them. Restored by neither bath nor food nor, in fine, any refreshment, weeping abundantly she withdrew to sleep.

[6] Nec mora cum paulo maturius lectum maritus accubans eamque etiam nunc lacrimantem complexus sic expostulat: 'Haecine mihi pollicebare, Psyche mea? quid iam de te tuus maritus expecto, quid spero? et perdia et pernox nec inter amplexus coniugales desinis cruciatum.

[6] Without delay, when a little earlier the husband, reclining upon the bed and embracing her, still even now weeping, thus remonstrates: 'Was this what you were promising me, my Psyche? What now am I, your husband, to expect of you, what to hope? Both by day and by night, nor even amid conjugal embraces do you cease from torment.'

age iam nunc ut voles, et animo tuo damnosa poscenti pareto! tantum memineris meae seriae monitionis, cum coeperis sero paenitere.' Tunc illa precibus et dum se morituram comminatur extorquet a marito cupitis adnuat, ut sorores videat, luctus mulceat, ora conferat. sic ille novae nuptae precibus veniam tribuit et insuper, quibuscumque vellet eas auri vel monilium donare concessit, sed identidem monuit ac saepe terruit, ne quando sororum pernicioso consilio suasa de forma mariti quaerat, neve se sacrilega curiositate de tanto fortunarum suggestu pessum deiciat nec suum postea contingat amplexum.

‘Go on now as you will, and obey your mind that asks for things ruinous! Only remember my serious admonition, when you begin, too late, to repent.’ Then she, by prayers and while she threatens that she will die, extorts from her husband that he assent to her desires: that she may see her sisters, soothe their grief, confer face to face. Thus he granted indulgence to the prayers of his new bride and, besides, permitted her to bestow upon them whatever she wished of gold or necklaces; but repeatedly he warned and often he frightened her, lest ever, persuaded by the pernicious counsel of the sisters, she inquire about the form of her husband, nor by sacrilegious curiosity cast herself down to ruin from so great an eminence of fortune, nor thereafter attain his embrace.

gratias egit marito iamque laetior animo 'sed prius,' inquit, 'centies moriar quam tuo isto dulcissimo conubio caream. amo enim et efflictim te, quicumque es, diligo aeque ut meum spiritum, nec ipsi Cupidini comparo. sed istud etiam meis precibus, oro, largire et illi tuo famulo Zephyro praecipe, simili vectura sorores hic mihi sistat'; et imprimens oscula suasoria et ingerens verba mulcentia et inserens membra cogentia haec etiam blanditiis astruit: 'mi mellite, mi marite, tuae Psychae dulcis anima.' vi ac potestate Venerii susurrus invitus succubuit maritus et cuncta se facturum spopondit atque, etiam luce proxumante, de manibus uxoris evanuit.

she gave thanks to her husband and now happier in spirit said, 'but first, may I die a hundred times rather than be deprived of that sweetest wedlock of yours. For I love you—even to distraction—whoever you are; I cherish you as much as my own breath, nor do I even compare you to Cupid himself. But grant this also to my prayers, I beg, and command that servant of yours, Zephyr, to set my sisters here for me by a similar conveyance'; and, impressing persuasive kisses and pouring in soothing words and interlacing compelling limbs, she further buttressed these requests with blandishments: 'my honey-sweet, my husband, the sweet soul of your Psyche.' By the force and potency of a Venerian whisper the husband, though unwilling, succumbed and pledged that he would do everything, and, with light already drawing near, vanished out of his wife’s hands.

[7] At illae sorores percontatae scopulum locumque illum, quo fuerat Psyche deserta, festinanter adveniunt ibique difflebant oculos et plangebant ubera, quoad crebris earum eiulatibus saxa cautesque parilem sonum resultarent. iamque nomine proprio sororem miseram ciebant, quoad sono penetrabili vocis ululabilis per prona delapso amens et trepida Psyche procurrit e domo et 'quid,' inquit, 'vos miseris lamentationibus necquicquam effligitis? quam lugetis, adsum.

[7] But those sisters, having inquired about the crag and that very place where Psyche had been deserted, hastily arrive, and there they were weeping out their eyes and beating their breasts, until, at their frequent ululations, the rocks and crags re-echoed an equal sound. And now they were calling their wretched sister by her own name, until, the piercing sound of their ululating voice having slipped down the slopes, Psyche, out of her mind and trembling, runs forth from the house and said, 'what are you exhausting yourselves with wretched lamentations to no purpose? she whom you mourn—I am here.'

lugubres voces desinite et diutinis lacrimis madentes genas siccate tandem, quippe cum iam possitis quam plangebatis amplecti.' Tunc vocatum Zephyrum praecepti maritalis admonet. nec mora cum ille parens imperio statim clementissimis flatibus innoxia vectura deportat illas. iam mutuis amplexibus et festinantibus saviis sese perfruuntur et illae sedatae lacrimae postliminio redeunt prolectante gaudio.

Cease your lugubrious voices and at last dry your cheeks soaked with long-continued tears, since now you can embrace her whom you were lamenting.’ Then she reminds the summoned Zephyr of the marital command. Without delay, he, obeying the order, at once with most clement breezes transports them by a harmless conveyance. Now with mutual embraces and hasty kisses they take their fill of one another, and those soothed tears return by right of re-entry, allured by joy.

'sed et tectum,' inquit, 'et larem nostrum laetae succedite et afflictas animas cum Psyche vestra recreate.'

'but also, to our roof,' she says, 'and to our hearth enter joyful, and re-create your afflicted souls together with your Psyche.'

[8] Sic allocuta summas opes domus aureae vocumque servientium populosam familiam demonstrat auribus earum lavacroque pulcherrimo et inhumanae mensae lautitiis eas opipare reficit, ut illarum prorsus caelestium divitiarum copiis affluentibus satiatae iam praecordiis penitus nutrirent invidiam. denique altera earum satis scrupulose curioseque percontari non desinit, quis illarum caelestium rerum dominus, quisve vel qualis ipsius sit maritus. nec tamen Psyche coniugale illud praeceptum ullo pacto temerat vel pectoris arcanis exigit, sed e re nata confingit esse iuvenem quendam et speciosum, commodum lanoso barbitio genas inumbrantem, plerumque rurestribus ac montanis venatibus occupatum.

[8] Thus having addressed them, she points out the highest resources of the golden house and, to their ears, the populous household of serving voices, and with a most beautiful bath and the delicacies of a more-than-human table she sumptuously refreshes them, so that, with the supplies of those wholly celestial riches overflowing, now sated to their very hearts, they nourished envy deep within. Finally, one of them does not cease to inquire quite scrupulously and curiously who is the lord of those celestial things, and who or of what sort her own husband is. Yet Psyche in no way violates that conjugal precept nor draws it out from the secrets of her breast; rather, as occasion arose, she fabricates that he is a certain young and handsome man, just now shading his cheeks with a woolly beardlet, for the most part occupied with rural and montane hunts.

Et ne qua sermonis procedentis labe consilium tacitum proderetur, auro facto gemmosisque monilibus onustas eas statim vocato Zephyro tradit reportandas.

And, lest by any stain upon the proceeding discourse the tacit counsel be betrayed, she loads them with wrought gold and gem-studded necklaces, and, Zephyr having been summoned forthwith, she hands them over to be carried back.

[9] Quo protinus perpetrato sorores egregiae domum redeuntes iamque gliscentis invidiae felle flagrantes multa secum sermonibus mutuis perstrepebant. sic denique infit altera: 'En orba et saeva et iniqua Fortuna! hocine tibi complacuit, ut utroque parente prognatae diversam sortem sustineremus?

[9] With this straightway accomplished, the distinguished sisters, returning home and now blazing with the gall of a swelling envy, were buzzing many things among themselves with mutual speeches. Thus at last one of them begins: 'Lo, bereaving and savage and inequitable Fortune! Has this pleased you, that, begotten from both the same parents, we should sustain a diverse lot?'

et nos quidem, quae natu maiores sumus, maritis advenis ancillae deditae, extorres et lare et ipsa patria degamus longe parentum velut exulantes, haec autem novissima, quam fetu satiante postremus partus effudit, tantis opibus et deo marito potita sit, quae nec uti recte tanta bonorum copia novit? vidisti, soror, quanta in domo iacent et qualia monilia, quae praenitent vestes, quae splendicant gemmae, quantum praeterea passim calcatur aurum. quodsi maritum etiam tam formonsum tenet, ut affirmat, nulla nunc in orbe toto felicior vivit.

and we indeed, who are the elder by birth, assigned as handmaids to alien husbands, live as exiles both from hearth and from our very fatherland, far from our parents as though banished; but this youngest, whom the last parturition, sating the womb, poured forth, has come into such opulence and a god for a husband—she who does not even know how rightly to use so great an abundance of goods. you saw, sister, how many and what sort of necklaces lie in the house, what garments shine forth, what gems are resplendent, how much gold, besides, is everywhere trodden underfoot. and if she likewise holds a husband so beauteous, as she affirms, no one now in the whole orb lives happier.

fortassis tamen procedente consuetudine et adfectione roborata deam quoque illam deus maritus efficiet. sic est hercules, sic se gerebat ferebatque. iam iam sursum respicit et deam spirat mulier, quae voces ancillas habet et ventis ipsis imperitat.

perhaps, however, with consuetude advancing and affection strengthened, her god-husband will even make that one a goddess. so it is, by Hercules; thus he comported and bore himself. even now she looks upward, and the woman breathes goddess, she who has voices as handmaids and commands the winds themselves.

at ego misera primum patre meo seniorem maritum sortita sum, dein cucurbita calviorem et quovis puero pusilliorem, cunctam domum seris et catenis obditam custodientem.'

but I, wretched, first drew by lot a husband older than my father, then one balder than a gourd and more puny than any boy, keeping the whole house locked up with bolts and chains.'

[10] Suscipit alia: 'ego vero maritum articulari etiam morbo complicatum curvatumque ac per hoc rarissimo Venerem meam recolentem sustineo, plerumque detortos et duratos in lapidem digitos eius perfricans, fomentis olidis et pannis sordidis et foetidis cataplasmatibus manus tam delicatas istas adurens nec uxoris officiosam faciem sed medicae laboriosam personam sustinens. et tu quidem, soror, videris, quam patienti vel potius servili—dicam enim libere quod sentio—haec perferas animo; enimvero ego nequeo sustinere ulterius tam beatam fortunam conlapsam indignae. recordare enim, quam superbe, quam adroganter nobiscum egerit et ipsa iactatione inmodicae ostentationis tumentem suum prodiderit animum, deque tantis divitiis exigua nobis invita proiecerit confestimque praesentia nostra gravata propelli et efflari exsibilarique nos iusserit.

[10] Another takes it up: 'As for me, I truly endure a husband entangled with an articular disease, twisted and bent, and therefore renewing my Venus most rarely; for the most part I rub his fingers wrenched and hardened into stone, scorching these my so delicate hands with rank fomentations and filthy rags and stinking poultices (cataplasms), sustaining not the dutiful face of a wife but the laborious persona of a physician. And you indeed, sister, seem—with what patient, or rather servile—for I will say freely what I feel—spirit to bear these things; but I cannot any further endure so blessed a fortune collapsed upon one unworthy. Do remember how proudly, how arrogantly she dealt with us, and by the very vaunting of immoderate ostentation betrayed her mind swelling with conceit, and out of such great riches she flung to us, grudging, a scant pittance, and immediately, burdened by our presence, ordered us to be driven out and blown away and hissed off.'

nec sum mulier nec omnino spiro, nisi eam pessum de tantis opibus deiecero. ac si tibi etiam, ut par est, inacuit nostra contumelia, consilium validum requiramus ambae. iamque ista, quae ferimus, non parentibus nostris ac nec ulli monstremus alii, immo nec omnino quicquam de eius salute norimus.

nor am I a woman nor do I at all breathe, unless I cast her down to ruin from such opulence. And if to you also, as is fitting, our contumely has whetted you, let us both seek a strong counsel. And now let us not show these things which we are bearing to our parents, nor to any other; nay rather, let us not know at all anything concerning her safety.

sat est, quod ipsae vidimus quae vidisse paenituit, nedum ut genitoribus et omnibus populis tam beatum eius differamus praeconium. nec sunt enim beati, quorum divitias nemo novit. sciet se non ancillas sed sorores habere maiores.

it is enough that we ourselves have seen what we regretted seeing, much less that we should spread to our parents and to all peoples so blessed a proclamation of her. for they are not blessed, whose riches no one knows. she will know that she has not handmaids but elder sisters.

et nunc quidem concedamus ad maritos et lares pauperes nostros sed plane sobrios revisamus diuque cogitationibus pressioribus instructae ad superbiam poeniendam firmiores redeamus.'

and now indeed let us withdraw to our husbands and our poor homes, but let us revisit them wholly sober, and, long equipped with weightier reflections, let us return stronger to penalize arrogance.'

[11] Placet pro bono duabus malis malum consilium totisque illis tam pretiosis muneribus absconditis comam trahentes et proinde ut merebantur ora lacerantes simulatos redintegrant fletus. ac sic parentes quoque redulcerato prorsum dolore raptim deterrentes vesania turgidae domus suas contendunt dolum scelestum, immo vero parricidium, struentes contra sororem insontem.

[11] In return for good, an evil counsel pleases the two wicked women; and with all those so precious gifts absconded, dragging their hair and, just as they merited, lacerating their faces, they renew simulated weeping. And thus, straightway with the pain re-ulcerated and hastily deterring their parents, swollen with turgid vesania, they make for their own houses, contriving a wicked deceit—nay rather parricide—against their innocent sister.

Interea Psychen maritus ille, quem nescit, rursum suis illis nocturnis sermonibus sic commonet: 'videsne, quantum tibi periculum? velitatur Fortuna eminus, ac nisi longe firmiter praecaves, mox comminus congredietur. perfidae lupulae magnis conatibus nefarias insidias tibi comparant, quarum summa est, ut te suadeant meos explorare vultus, quos, ut tibi saepe praedixi, non videbis si videris.

Meanwhile that husband of Psyche, whom she does not know, again in those nightly conversations thus admonishes her: 'Do you see how great a peril for you? Fortune is skirmishing from afar, and unless you take firm precautions well in advance, soon she will engage at close quarters. The perfidious little she-wolves, with great efforts, are preparing nefarious ambushes for you, the sum of which is that they urge you to explore my features—which, as I have often foretold to you, you will not see if you see.'

ergo igitur si posthac pessimae illae lamiae noxiis animis armatae venerint—venient autem, scio—neque omnino sermonem conferas et si id tolerare pro genuina simplicitate proque animi tui teneritudine non potueris, certe de marito nil quicquam vel audias vel respondeas. nam et familiam nostram iam propagabimus et hic adhuc infantilis uterus gestat nobis infantem alium, si texeris nostra secreta silentio, divinum, si profanaveris, mortalem.'

therefore then, if hereafter those most wicked lamiae, armed with noxious spirits, should come—they will come, however, I know—do not at all confer conversation; and if you cannot tolerate that on account of your genuine simplicity and the tenderness of your spirit, at least about your husband neither hear anything nor answer. for we will now propagate our family, and this still-infantile womb carries for us another infant—if you cover our secrets with silence, divine; if you profane them, mortal.'

[12] Nuntio Psyche laeta florebat et divinae subolis solacio plaudebat et futuri pignoris gloria gestiebat et materni nominis dignitate gaudebat. crescentes dies et menses exeuntes anxia numerat et sarcinae nesciae rudimento miratur de brevi punctulo tantum incrementulum locupletis uteri. Sed iam pestes illae taeterrimaeque Furiae anhelantes vipereum virus et festinantes impia celeritate navigabant.

[12] At the news Psyche blossomed happy and applauded with the solace of divine offspring, and she exulted in the glory of the future pledge and rejoiced in the dignity of the maternal name. She anxiously counts the days as they grow and the months as they pass, and in the rudiment of an unknown burden she marvels how from a brief little point there comes so tiny an increment of her wealthy womb. But now those pests and most hideous Furies, gasping out viperous venom and hurrying with impious speed, were sailing.

tunc sic iterum momentarius maritus suam Psychen admonet: 'dies ultima et casus extremus est: sexus infestus et sanguis inimicus iam sumpsit arma et castra commovit et aciem direxit et classicum personavit; iam mucrone destricto iugulum tuum nefariae tuae sorores petunt. heu quantis urguemur cladibus, Psyche dulcissima. tui nostrique miserere religiosaque continentia domum, maritum, teque et istum parvulum nostrum imminentis ruinae infortunio libera.

then thus again the momentary husband admonishes his Psyche: 'the last day and an ultimate crisis is at hand: the hostile sex and inimical blood have now taken up arms, moved the camp, drawn up the battle-line, and the war-trumpet has resounded; now, with blade drawn, your nefarious sisters seek your throat. alas, by how great disasters we are pressed, sweetest Psyche. have pity on yourself and on us, and by religious continence free the house, your husband, yourself, and that tiny little one of ours from the misfortune of impending ruin.'

nec illas scelestas feminas, quas tibi post internecivum odium et calcata sanguinis foedera sorores appellare non licet, vel videas vel audias, cum in morem Sirenum scopulo prominentes funestis vocibus saxa personabunt.'

nor should you even see or hear those wicked women, whom it is not permitted for you, after the internecine hatred and the pacts of blood trampled underfoot, to call sisters, when, in the manner of the Sirens, jutting from a crag, they will make the rocks resound with funereal voices.'

[13] Suscipit Psyche singultu lacrimoso sermonem incertans: 'iam dudum, quod sciam, fidei atque parciloquio meo perpendisti documenta, nec eo setius adprobabitur tibi nunc etiam firmitas animi mei. tu modo Zephyro nostro rursum praecipe, fungatur obsequio, et in vicem denegatae sacrosanctae imaginis tuae redde saltem conspectum sororum. per istos cinnameos et undique pendulos crines tuos, per teneras et teretis et mei similes genas, per pectus nescio quo calore fervidum, sic in hoc saltem parvulo cognoscam faciem tuam: supplicis anxiae piis precibus erogatus, germani complexus indulge fructum et tibi devotae Psychae animam gaudio recrea.

[13] Psyche, taking up the discourse with tearful sobbing and faltering, says: 'Long since, so far as I know, you have weighed the proofs of my fidelity and parsimony of speech, nor will the firmness of my spirit be any the less approved to you now as well. Only you, command our Zephyr again, let him perform his obedience, and in exchange for the denied most‑sacrosanct image of you, at least restore the sight of my sisters. By those cinnamon‑colored and everywhere‑pendant locks of yours, by your tender and rounded cheeks, so like mine, by your breast fervid with I‑know‑not‑what heat, thus at least in this little one may I recognize your face: being won over by the pious prayers of your anxious suppliant, grant the fruit of sisters’ embraces, and refresh with joy the soul of Psyche devoted to you.

nec quicquam amplius in tuo vultu requiro. iam nil officiunt mihi nec ipsae nocturnae tenebrae: teneo te, meum lumen.'

nor do I require anything more in your countenance. now not even the nocturnal shades hinder me: I hold you, my light.'

His verbis et amplexibus mollibus decantatus maritus lacrimasque eius suis crinibus detergens se facturum spopondit et praevertit statim lumen nascentis diei.

Charmed by these words and by soft embraces, the husband, wiping her tears with his own locks, promised he would do it, and straightway anticipated the light of the nascent day.

[14] Iugum sororium consponsae factionis ne parentibus quidem visis recta de navibus scopulum petunt illum praecipiti cum velocitate nec venti ferentis oppertae praesentiam licentiosa cum temeritate prosiliunt in altum. nec immemor Zephyrus regalis edicti, quamvis invitus, susceptas eas gremio spirantis aurae solo reddidit. at illae incunctatae statim conferto vestigio domum penetrant complexaeque praedam suam sororis nomen ementientes thensaurumque penitus abditae fraudis vultu laeto tegentes sic adulant: 'Psyche, non ita ut pridem parvula, et ipsa iam mater es. quantum, putas, boni nobis in ista geris perula; quantis gaudiis totam domum nostram hilarabis.

[14] The sisterly yoke of their concerted faction, not even seen by their parents, straight from the ships seek that crag with headlong speed, and, not awaiting the presence of the carrying wind, with licentious temerity they leap out into the air. Nor was Zephyr unmindful of the royal edict; although unwilling, having taken them up in the lap of the breathing breeze, he set them down upon the ground. But they, without delay, at once with crowded step penetrate the house, and, embracing their prey, feigning the name of sister and with a cheerful face veiling the treasure of their deeply hidden fraud, thus fawn: 'Psyche, not as lately a little girl, you yourself are now a mother. How much good, think you, do you carry for us in that little purse; with what joys will you gladden our whole household.'

o nos beatas, quas infantis aurei nutrimenta laetabunt. qui si parentum, ut oportet, pulchritudini responderit, prorsus Cupido nascetur.'

'O how blessed we are, whom the nurture of the golden infant will gladden. If he, as is fitting, responds to the beauty of his parents, a very Cupid will be born.'

[15] Sic adfectione simulata paulatim sororis invadunt animum. statimque eas lassitudine viae sedilibus refotas et balnearum vaporosis fontibus curatas pulcherrime triclinio mirisque illis et beatis edulibus atque tuccetis oblectat. iubet citharam loqui: psallitur; tibias agere: sonatur; choros canere: cantatur.

[15] Thus, with simulated affection, they gradually invade their sister’s mind. And straightway, wearied by the road, she refreshes them on seats and, cared for in the steamy springs of the baths, she most beautifully entertains them in the triclinium with those wondrous and blissful edibles and delicacies. She bids the cithara speak: it is played; the pipes perform: there is sounding; the choruses sing: there is singing.

quae cuncta nullo praesente dulcissimis modulis animos audientium remulcebant. nec tamen scelestarum feminarum nequitia vel illa mellita cantus dulcedine mollita conquievit, sed ad destinatam fraudium pedicam sermonem conferentes dissimulanter occipiunt sciscitari, qualis ei maritus et unde natalium, secta cuia proveniret. tunc illa simplicitate nimia pristini sermonis oblita novum commentum instruit aitque maritum suum de provincia proxima magnis pecuniis negotiantem iam medium cursum aetatis agere, interspersum rara canitie.

all of which, with no one present, soothed the minds of the listeners with the sweetest modulations. Yet the wickedness of the criminal women, not even softened by that honeyed sweetness of song, did not come to rest; but, directing their discourse toward the destined snare of frauds, they begin dissemblingly to inquire what sort of husband she had and whence his natal origin, from what sect he had proceeded. Then she, through excessive simplicity, forgetful of her former tale, sets up a new contrivance and says that her husband, trading with great sums of money from a neighboring province, is now running the mid-course of life, sprinkled with a sparse hoariness.

nec in sermone isto tantillum morata rursum opiparis muneribus eas onustas ventoso vehiculo reddidit.

nor, not lingering even the least in that conversation, she returned them again, laden with sumptuous gifts, to the windy vehicle.

[16] Sed dum Zephyri tranquillo spiritu sublimatae domum redeunt, sic secum altercantes: 'quid, soror, dicimus de tam monstruoso fatuae illius mendacio? tunc adolescens modo florenti lanugine barbam instruens, nunc aetate media candenti canitie lucidus. quis ille, quem temporis modici spatium repentina senecta reformavit?

[16] But while, lifted up by the tranquil breath of Zephyr, they return home, thus wrangling with themselves: 'What, sister, are we to say about so monstrous a mendacity of that fatuous girl? Then a youth, just now furnishing his beard with blooming down, now in middle age radiant with gleaming hoariness. Who is he whom a brief span of time has refashioned by sudden old age?

nil aliud repperies, mi soror, quam vel mendacia istam pessimam feminam confingere vel formam mariti sui nescire; quorum utrum verum est, opibus istis quam primum exterminanda est. quodsi viri sui faciem ignorat, deo profecto denupsit et deum nobis praegnatione ista gerit. certe si divini puelli—quod absit— haec mater audierit, statim me laqueo nexili suspendam.

You will find nothing else, my sister, than either that that most wicked woman is fabricating mendacities or that she does not know the form of her husband; whichever of the two is true, from that opulence she must be exterminated as soon as possible. But if she is ignorant of her husband’s face, she has surely wedded a god, and by that pregnancy she is bearing a god for us. Surely, if this woman hears herself called the mother of a divine little boy—God forbid—straightway I will hang myself with a woven noose.

ergo interim ad parentes nostros redeamus et exordio sermonis huius quam concolores fallacias adtexamus.'

therefore meanwhile let us return to our parents and, at the exordium of this discourse, let us interweave fallacies as color-matched as possible.'

[17] Sic inflammatae, parentibus fastidienter appellatis et nocte turbatae vigiliis, perditae matutino scopulum pervolant et inde solito venti praesidio vehementer devolant lacrimisque pressura palpebrarum coactis hoc astu puellam appellant: 'tu quidem felix et ipsa tanti mali ignorantia beata sedes incuriosa periculi tui, nos autem, quae pervigili cura rebus tuis excubamus, cladibus tuis misere cruciamur. pro vero namque comperimus, nec te, sociae scilicet doloris casusque tui, celare possumus, immanem colubrum multinodis voluminibus serpentem, veneno noxio colla sanguinantem hiantemque ingluvie profunda, tecum noctibus latenter adquiescere. nunc recordare sortis Pythicae, quae te trucis bestiae nuptiis destinatam esse clamavit.

[17] Thus inflamed, after disdainfully addressing their parents and, disturbed through the night by vigils, distraught at morning they fly to the cliff and from there, by the usual aid of the wind, they swiftly swoop down; and with tears forced by the pressure of their eyelids, by this stratagem they address the girl: 'you indeed, happy and blessed by your ignorance of so great an evil, sit heedless of your own danger; but we, who keep watch with ever-wakeful care over your affairs, are pitiably tormented by your disasters. For as fact we have discovered—and we cannot hide it from you, being of course companions of your pain and mischance—that a monstrous serpent, slithering with many-knotted coils, its necks bleeding with noxious venom, and gaping with deep gluttony, lies with you secretly at night. Now recall the Pythian oracle, which proclaimed that you were destined for the nuptials of a savage beast.'

et multi coloni quique circumsecus venantur et accolae plurimi viderunt eum vespera redeuntem e pastu proximique fluminis vadis innatantem.

and many farmers, and those who hunt round about, and very many neighbors saw him in the evening returning from pasture and swimming through the shallows of the nearby river.

[18] 'nec diu blandis alimoniarum obsequiis te saginaturum omnes adfirmant, sed, cum primum praegnationem tuam plenus maturaverit uterus, opimiore fructu praeditam devoraturum. ad haec iam tua est existimatio, utrum sororibus pro tua cara salute sollicitis adsentiri velis et declinata morte nobiscum secura periculi vivere, an saevissimae bestiae sepeliri visceribus. quodsi te ruris huius vocalis solitudo, vel clandestinae Veneris faetidi periculosique concubitus et venenati serpentis amplexus delectant, certe piae sorores nostrum fecerimus.' Tunc Psyche misella, utpote simplex et animi tenella, rapitur verborum tam tristium formidine: extra terminum mentis suae posita prorsus omnium mariti monitionum suarumque promissionum memoriam effudit et in profundum calamitatis sese praecipitavit, tremensque et exangui colore lurida tertiata verba semihianti voce substrepens sic ad illas ait:

[18] 'and all affirm that he will not for long fatten you with the coaxing attentions of nourishments, but, as soon as your womb, full, shall have matured your pregnancy, he will devour you, endowed with the richer fruit. To this point now it is your own estimation, whether you wish to assent to your sisters, solicitous for your dear safety, and, death having been averted, to live with us secure from danger, or to be buried in the entrails of a most savage beast. But if the vocal solitude of this countryside, or the foul and perilous couplings of clandestine Venus and the embraces of a venomous serpent delight you, surely we dutiful sisters will have done our part.' Then poor little Psyche, inasmuch as she was simple and tender of spirit, is seized by fear of words so sad: placed outside the boundary of her mind, she utterly poured out the memory of all her husband’s warnings and of her own promises and hurled herself into the depth of calamity, and trembling and pale with bloodless color, with thrice-repeated words, murmuring in a half-gaping voice, she thus spoke to them:

[19] 'Vos quidem, carissimae sorores, ut par erat, in officio vestrae pietatis permanetis, verum et illi, qui talia vobis adfirmant, non videntur mihi mendacium fingere. nec enim umquam viri mei vidi faciem vel omnino cuiatis sit novi, sed tantum nocturnis subaudiens vocibus maritum incerti status et prorsus lucifugam tolero bestiamque aliquam recte dicentibus vobis merito consentio. meque magnopere semper a suis terret aspectibus malumque grande de vultus curiositate praeminatur.

[19] 'You indeed, dearest sisters, as was fitting, remain in the office of your piety; and truly those who affirm such things to you do not seem to me to be feigning a lie. For I have never seen my husband’s face, nor do I at all know of what country he is, but only, by overhearing nocturnal voices, I endure a husband of uncertain status and utterly lucifugous, and that he is some beast I deservedly assent to you who speak rightly. And he very greatly always frightens me away from his own appearances and threatens beforehand a great evil from curiosity about his countenance.

nunc si quam salutarem opem periclitanti sorori vestrae potestis adferre, iam nunc subsistite; ceterum incuria sequens prioris providentiae beneficia conrumpet.'

'Now, if you can bring any salutary help to your sister in peril, stay now at once; otherwise, subsequent neglect will spoil the benefits of prior foresight.'

Tunc nanctae iam portis patentibus nudatum sororis animum facinerosae mulieres, omissis tectae machinae latibulis, destrictis gladiis fraudium simplicis puellae paventes cogitationes invadunt.

Then, the wicked women, having now obtained their sister’s spirit laid bare with the gates standing open, setting aside the lurking-places of their concealed machination, with the drawn swords of deceit invade the trembling thoughts of the simple girl.

[20] Sic denique altera: 'quoniam nos originis nexus pro tua incolumitate periculum quidem ullum ante oculos habere compellit, viam, quae sola deducit iter ad salutem, diu diuque cogitatam monstrabimus tibi. novaculam praeacutam, adpulsu etiam palmulae lenientis exasperatam, tori qua parte cubare consuesti, latenter absconde lucernamque concinnem, completam oleo, claro lumine praemicantem subde aliquo claudentis aululae tegmine. omnique isto apparatu tenacissime dissimulato, postquam sulcatos intrahens gressus cubile solitum conscenderit, iamque porrectus et exordio somni prementis implicitus altum soporem flare coeperit, toro delapsa nudoque vestigio pensilem gradum paullulatim minuens, caecae tenebrae custodia liberata lucerna, praeclari tui facinoris opportunitatem de luminis consilio mutuare et ancipiti telo illo audaciter, prius dextera sursum elata, nisu quam valido noxii serpentis nodum cervicis et capitis abscide.

[20] Thus finally the other: 'since the bonds of origin compel us, for your incolumity, to have some danger indeed before our eyes, we will show you the way—long, long considered—which alone leads the journey to safety. A razor, pre-sharpened, roughened even by the pass of a smoothing little palm, secretly hide on that part of the bed where you are accustomed to lie, and tuck a neat lamp, filled with oil and pre-glistening with clear light, beneath some cover of a small enclosing aulula. And with all that apparatus most tenaciously concealed, after he has mounted the usual couch, drawing in his furrowed steps, and now, stretched out and entangled in the beginning of pressing sleep, begins to breathe deep slumber, slip from the bed and, with bare tread, little by little lessening your hanging step; the lamp, freed from the guardianship of blind darkness, borrow from the counsel of the light the opportunity for your illustrious deed, and with that two-edged weapon, boldly—your right hand first lifted upward—with a very strong thrust cut off the knot of neck and head of the noxious serpent.'

nec nostrum tibi deerit subsidium; sed cum primum illius morte salutem tibi feceris, anxiae praestolatae advolabimus cunctisque istis opibus tecum relatis, votivis nuptiis hominem te iungemus homini.'

nor will our aid be lacking to you; but as soon as you shall have secured safety for yourself by his death, we, anxiously waiting, will fly to you, and, with all those resources brought back with you, we will join you, a human, to a human husband in votive nuptials.'

[21] Tali verborum incendio flammata viscera sororis iam prorsus ardentis deserentes ipsae protinus, tanti mali confinium sibi etiam eximie metuentes, flatus alitis impulsu solito provectae super scopulum ilico pernici se fuga proripiunt statimque conscensis navibus abeunt. at Psyche relicta sola, nisi quod infestis Furiis agitata sola non est, aestu pelagi simile maerendo fluctuat et, quamvis statuto consilio et obstinato animo, iam tamen facinori manus admovens adhuc incerta consilii titubat multisque calamitatis suae distrahitur affectibus. festinat differt, audet trepidat, diffidit irascitur et, quod est ultimum, in eodem corpore odit bestiam, diligit maritum.

[21] With their sister’s viscera inflamed by such a conflagration of words, now indeed utterly burning, they themselves straightway, exceedingly fearing for themselves the borderland of so great an evil, borne forward by the wonted impulse of the winged breeze, over the crag immediately in swift flight hurl themselves away, and at once, having boarded their ships, depart. But Psyche, left alone—save that, harried by hostile Furies, she is not alone—surges in her grieving with a swell like the sea, and although with fixed counsel and an obstinate mind, yet now, bringing her hand to the crime, still uncertain of the plan she wavers and is torn by many passions of her calamity. She hastens, she defers, she dares, she trembles, she distrusts, she grows angry, and—what is ultimate—in the same body she hates the beast, she loves the husband.

vespera tamen iam noctem trahente praecipiti festinatione nefarii sceleris instruit apparatum. nox aderat et maritus aderat priusque Veneris proeliis velitatus in altum soporem descenderat.

Nevertheless, with evening now dragging night along, she arranges the apparatus of her nefarious crime in headlong haste. Night was at hand and the husband was at hand, and, first, having skirmished in the battles of Venus, he had descended into deep sleep.

[22] Tunc Psyche, et corporis et animi alioquin infirma, fati tamen saevitia subministrante viribus roboratur et prolata lucerna et adrepta novacula sexum audacia mutatur. sed cum primum luminis oblatione tori secreta claruerunt, videt omnium ferarum mitissimam dulcissimamque bestiam, ipsum illum Cupidinem formonsum deum formonse cubantem, cuius aspectu lucernae quoque lumen hilaratum increbruit et acuminis sacrilegi novaculam paenitebat. at vero Psyche tanto aspectu deterrita et impos animi, marcido pallore defecta tremensque desedit in imos poplites et ferrum quaerit abscondere, sed in suo pectore; quod profecto fecisset, nisi ferrum timore tanti flagitii manibus temerariis delapsum evolasset.

[22] Then Psyche, otherwise infirm of body and mind, yet with the savagery of fate supplying her with strength, is fortified with forces; and, the lamp brought forth and the razor seized, by audacity she changes her sex. But when at the very first the secrets of the couch shone clear by the proffering of the light, she beholds, of all wild creatures, the mildest and sweetest beast—Cupid himself, the beautiful god, lying beautifully—at the sight of whom even the lamp’s light, made cheerful, grew brighter, and the razor repented of its sacrilegious acumen. But Psyche, indeed, terrified by so great a sight and not mistress of her mind, drained with a withered pallor and trembling, sank down upon the very backs of her knees, and seeks to hide the iron, but in her own breast; which she would surely have done, had not the iron, in fear of so great a flagitious deed, slipped from her temerarious hands and flown away.

iamque lassa, salute defecta, dum saepius divini vultus intuetur pulchritudinem, recreatur animi.

And now, weary, with her life failing, while she more and more often gazes upon the beauty of the divine countenance, she is refreshed in spirit.

Videt capitis aurei genialem caesariem ambrosia temulentam, cervices lacteas genasque purpureas pererrantes crinium globos decoriter impeditos, alios antependulos, alios retropendulos, quorum splendore nimio fulgurante iam et ipsum lumen lucernae vacillabat. per umeros volatilis dei pinnae roscidae micanti flore candicant et quamvis alis quiescentibus extimae plumulae tenellae ac delicatae tremule resultantes inquieta lasciviunt. ceterum corpus glabellum atque luculentum et quale peperisse Venerem non paeniteret.

She sees the genial locks of his golden head, drunk with ambrosia, the clusters of hair, decorously entwined, roving over the milk-white nape and purpureous cheeks, some hanging forward, others backward, at whose excessive, flashing splendor even the very light of the lamp was already wavering. Over the shoulders of the winged god, dewy pinions whiten with a glittering bloom, and although the wings are at rest, the outermost little plumes, tender and delicate, quivering back, wanton restlessly. Moreover, the body is smooth and resplendent—of such a kind as Venus would not regret to have borne.

ante lectuli pedes iacebat arcus et pharetra et sagittae, magni dei propitia tela.

before the little bed’s feet lay a bow and a quiver and arrows, the propitious weapons of the great god.

[23] Quae dum insatiabili animo Psyche, satis et curiosa, rimatur atque pertrectat et mariti sui miratur arma, depromit unam de pharetra sagittam et puncto pollicis extremam aciem periclitabunda trementis etiam nunc articuli nisu fortiore pupugit altius, ut per summam cutem roraverint parvulae sanguinis rosei guttae. sic ignara Psyche sponte in Amoris incidit amorem. tunc magis magisque cupidine flagrans Cupidinis, prona in eum efflictim inhians patulis ac petulantibus saviis festinanter ingestis, de somni mensura metuebat.

[23] While Psyche, with an insatiable spirit and quite curious, explores and handles and marvels at her husband’s arms, she draws forth one arrow from the quiver; and, making trial of its extreme point with a prick of her thumb, the joint even now trembling, by a stronger pressure she pierced rather deep, so that tiny drops of rosy blood bedewed the surface of the skin. Thus, unknowing, Psyche of her own accord fell into the love of Love. Then, more and more blazing with desire for Cupid, leaning forward toward him, gaping for him desperately, with broad and petulant kisses hastily pressed in, she grew afraid about the measure of the sleep.

sed dum bono tanto percita saucia mente fluctuat, lucerna illa sive perfidia pessima sive invidia noxia sive quod tale corpus contingere et quasi basiare et ipsa gestiebat, evomuit de summa luminis sui stillam ferventis olei super umerum dei dexterum. hem audax et temeraria lucerna et amoris vile ministerium, ipsum ignis totius deum aduris, cum te scilicet amator aliquis, ut diutius cupitis etiam nocte potiretur, primus invenerit. sic inustus exiluit deus visaque detectae fidei colluvie protinus ex osculis et manibus infelicissimae coniugis tacitus avolavit.

but while, roused by so great a good, she fluctuated with a mind wounded, that lamp—whether through very wicked perfidy or harmful envy, or because it too was eager to touch and, as it were, to kiss such a body—vomited from the top of its light a drop of boiling oil upon the god’s right shoulder. ah, bold and rash lamp and the vile ministry of Love, you scorch the very god of all fire, since of course some lover, that he might for longer possess what he desired even by night, first discovered you. thus the god, seared, leapt up, and, when he saw the pollution of exposed loyalty, at once flew away in silence from the kisses and hands of his most unfortunate spouse.

[24] At Psyche, statim resurgentis eius crure dextero manibus ambabus adrepto, sublimis evectionis appendix miseranda et per nubilas plagas penduli comitatus extrema consequia, tandem fessa delabitur solo. Nec deus amator humi iacentem deserens, involavit proximam cupressum deque eius alto cacumine sic eam graviter commotus adfatur:

[24] But Psyche, immediately, having seized with both hands his right leg as he rose again, a pitiable appendix of the lofty flight and, through the cloudy regions, the last trailing sequel of a dangling retinue, at length, weary, slips down to the ground. Nor did the lover-god, not abandoning her as she lay on the earth, fly into the nearest cypress, and from its high summit thus, deeply moved, address her:

'Ego quidem, simplicissima Psyche, parentis meae Veneris praeceptorum immemor, quae te miseri extremique hominis devinctam cupidine infimo matrimonio addici iusserat, ipse potius amator advolavi tibi. sed hoc feci leviter, scio, et praeclarus ille sagittarius ipse me telo meo percussi teque coniugem meam feci, ut bestia scilicet tibi viderer et ferro caput excideres meum, quod istos amatores tuos oculos gerit. haec tibi identidem semper cavenda censebam, haec benivole remonebam.

'Indeed I, most simple Psyche, forgetful of the precepts of my parent Venus, who had ordered that you, bound by the lowest desire, be consigned in matrimony to a miserable and most extreme man, I myself rather, as a lover, flew to you. But I did this lightly, I know, and that famous archer—I struck myself with my own weapon and made you my wife—so that I, forsooth, might seem a beast to you, and you would sever my head with iron, that head which carries those lovers of yours—your eyes. These things I was always deeming must again and again be shunned by you; these things I kindly kept reminding you of.

sed illae quidem consiliatrices egregiae tuae tam perniciosi magisterii dabunt actutum mihi poenas, te vero tantum fuga mea punivero.' et cum termino sermonis pinnis in altum se proripuit.

but those, indeed, the excellent counselors of your so pernicious tutelage, will pay me the penalty forthwith; but you, truly, I shall punish only by my flight.' and, with the termination of his speech, he hurled himself on high on his pinions.

[25] Psyche vero humi prostrata et quantum visu poterat volatus mariti prospiciens, extremis affligebat lamentationibus animum. sed ubi remigio plumae raptum maritum proceritas spatii fecerat alienum, per proximi fluminis marginem praecipitem sese dedit. sed mitis fluvius, in honorem dei scilicet, qui et ipsas aquas urere consuevit, metuens sibi, confestim eam innoxio volumine super ripam florentem herbis exposuit.

[25] But Psyche, prostrate on the ground and, as far as sight could reach, looking out upon her husband’s flight, was afflicting her spirit with extremest lamentations. But when the loftiness of the space had made her husband—snatched away by the oaring of his plumage—alien to her, she hurled herself headlong from the margin of the nearest river. Yet the gentle stream, in honor of the god, to wit, who is even wont to burn the waters themselves, fearing for itself, forthwith with a harmless rolling set her out upon a bank flowering with grasses.

tunc forte Pan deus rusticus iuxta supercilium amnis sedebat, complexus Echo montanam deam eamque voculas omnimodas edocens recinere. proxime ripam vago pastu lasciviunt comam fluvii tondentes capellae. hircuosus deus sauciam Psychen atque defectam, utcumque casus eius non inscius, clementer ad se vocatam sic permulcet verbis lenientibus:

then by chance Pan, the rustic god, was sitting beside the brow of the river, clasping Echo, the mountain goddess, and schooling her to sing back every kind of little voice. Close to the bank the little she-goats frolic in roving pasture, cropping the river’s hair. The goatish god, seeing Psyche wounded and spent, and not unaware, in whatever way, of her mischance, gently, when she had been called to him, soothes her thus with softening words:

'Puella scitula, sum quidem rusticanus et upilio, sed senectutis prolixae beneficio multis experimentis instructus. verum si recte coniecto, quod profecto prudentes viri divinationem autumant, ab isto titubante et saepius vacillante vestigio deque nimio pallore corporis et assiduo suspiritu, immo et ipsis maerentibus oculis tuis, amore nimio laboras. ergo mihi ausculta nec te rursus praecipitio vel ullo mortis accersitae genere perimas.

'Pretty girl, I am indeed a rustic and a shepherd, but by the benefit of prolonged old age I am instructed by many experiences. Yet, if I conjecture rightly (which, in fact, prudent men call divination), from that stumbling and so often wavering footstep, and from the excessive pallor of your body and your assiduous sighing—nay, even from your very mourning eyes—you are suffering from excessive love. Therefore hearken to me, and do not again destroy yourself by a headlong plunge or by any kind of self‑summoned death.

luctum desine et pone maerorem, precibusque potius Cupidinem deorum maximum percole, et utpote adolescentem delicatum luxuriosumque blandis obsequiis promerere.'

"Cease mourning and set aside grief, and rather with prayers cultivate Cupid, the greatest of the gods, and, inasmuch as he is a delicate and luxurious adolescent, win his favor by blandishing obsequious attentions."

[26] Sic locuto deo pastore nulloque sermone reddito, sed adorato tantum numine salutari, Psyche pergit ire. sed cum aliquam multum viae laboranti vestigio pererrasset, inscio quodam tramite iam die labente accedit quandam civitatem, in qua regnum maritus unius sororis eius optinebat. qua re cognita Psyche nuntiari praesentiam suam sorori desiderat; mox inducta mutuis amplexibus alternae salutationis expletis, percontanti causas adventus sui sic incipit:

[26] With the god-shepherd having thus spoken and no word returned, but only the salutary numen adored, Psyche goes on her way. But when she had wandered over a good portion of the road with a toiling footstep, by some unknown bypath, with the day now waning, she approaches a certain city, in which the husband of one of her sisters held a kingdom. Once this was learned, Psyche desires that her presence be announced to her sister; soon led in, the mutual embraces of alternate salutation having been completed, to the one inquiring the causes of her coming she thus begins:

'Meministi consilium vestrum scilicet quo mihi suasistis ut bestiam, quae mariti mentito nomine mecum quiescebat, priusquam ingluvie voraci me misellam hauriret, ancipiti novacula peremerem. sed cum primum, ut aeque placuerat, conscio lumine vultus eius aspexi, video mirum divinumque prorsus spectaculum, ipsum illum deae Veneris filium, ipsum inquam Cupidinem, leni quiete sopitum. ac dum tanti boni spectaculo percita et nimia voluptatis copia turbata fruendi laborarem inopia, casu scilicet pessumo lucerna fervens oleum rebullivit in eius umerum.

'You remember your counsel, to wit, by which you advised me that the beast who, under the feigned name of “husband,” was lying with me, I should dispatch with a two-edged razor before, with voracious gluttony, it would gulp down me, poor little wretch. But when first, as had equally pleased, with the light made privy I looked upon his face, I behold a wondrous and altogether divine spectacle—the very son of the goddess Venus, yes, Cupid himself—lulled in gentle repose. And while, thrilled by the spectacle of so great a good and thrown into confusion by an excessive abundance of delight, I was at a loss how to enjoy him, by the worst chance the lamp’s boiling oil sputtered back onto his shoulder.

quo dolore statim somno recussus, ubi me ferro et igni conspexit armatam, ʻtu quidem,' inquit, 'ob istud tam dirum facinus confestim toro meo divorte tibique res tuas habeto, ego vero sororem tuam'—et nomen quo tu censeris aiebat—'iam mihi confarreatis nuptiis coniugabo.' et statim Zephyro praecipit ultra terminos me domus eius efflaret.'

by which pain he was at once shaken from sleep; when he saw me armed with iron and fire, 'You indeed,' he said, 'on account of so dire a deed, forthwith depart from my bed and keep your things to yourself; but I will wed your sister'—and he spoke the name by which you are styled—'to myself now with confarreate nuptials.' And immediately he ordered Zephyr to blow me beyond the boundaries of his house.

[27] Necdum sermonem Psyche finierat, et illa vesanae libidinis et invidiae noxiae stimulis agitata, e re concinnato mendacio fallens maritum, quasi de morte parentum aliquid conperisset, statim navem ascendit et ad illum scopulum protinus pergit et quamvis alio flante vento, caeca spe tamen inhians, 'accipe me,' dicens, 'Cupido, dignam te coniugem et tu, Zephyre, suscipe dominam' saltu se maximo praecipitem dedit. nec tamen ad illum locum vel saltem mortua pervenire potuit. nam per saxa cautium membris iactatis atque dissipatis et, proinde ut merebatur, laceratis visceribus suis alitibus bestiisque obvium ferens pabulum interiit.

[27] Psyche had not yet finished her speech, and she, agitated by the goads of insane lust and noxious envy, deceiving her husband with a lie concocted to suit the case, as if she had learned something about the death of her parents, at once boarded a ship and straightway made for that crag; and although another wind was blowing, yet gaping with blind hope, saying, 'Receive me, Cupid, a spouse worthy of you, and you too, Zephyr, receive your mistress,' she hurled herself headlong with the greatest leap. Yet she could not reach that place, nor even as a dead woman. For, with her limbs cast and scattered upon the rocks of the crags, and, just as she deserved, with her own entrails torn, bearing provender to meet birds and beasts, she perished.

Nec vindictae sequentis poena tardavit. nam Psyche rursus errabundo gradu pervenit ad civitatem aliam, in qua pari modo soror morabatur alia. nec setius et ipsa fallacie germanitatis inducta et in sororis sceleratas nuptias aemula festinavit ad scopulum inque simile mortis exitium cecidit.

Nor did the punishment of the vengeance that followed delay. For Psyche again, with wandering step, arrived at another city, in which likewise another sister was dwelling. And none the less she too, led on by the deceit of sisterhood and emulous of her sister’s criminal nuptials, hastened to the crag and fell into a like destruction of death.

[28] Interim, dum Psyche quaesitioni Cupidinis intenta populos circumibat, ille vulnere lucernae dolens in ipso thalamo matris iacens ingemebat. tunc avis peralba illa gavia, quae super fluctus marinos pinnis natat, demergit sese propere ad Oceani profundum gremium. ibi commodum Venerem lavantem natantemque propter assistens indicat adustum filium eius, gravi vulneris dolore maerentem, dubium salutis iacere iamque per cunctorum ora populorum rumoribus conviciisque variis omnem Veneris familiam male audire, quod ille quidem montano scortatu, tu vero marino natatu secesseritis ac per hoc non voluptas ulla, non gratia, non lepos, sed incompta et agrestia et horrida cuncta sint, non nuptiae coniugales, non amicitiae sociales, non liberum caritates, sed enormis eluvies et squalentium foederum insuave fastidium.

[28] Meanwhile, while Psyche, intent on the quest of Cupid, was going around the peoples, he, grieving from the wound of the lamp, lying in his mother’s very bedchamber, was groaning. Then that very white bird, the seagull, which swims upon the sea-waves with its wings, plunges itself swiftly down to the deep bosom of Ocean. There, standing close by Venus as she bathes and swims, it reports that her son is adust—burned—lamenting with the grave pain of the wound, lying in doubtful safety, and that now, on the lips of all peoples, with rumors and various revilings, the whole household of Venus has an ill name: because he indeed has withdrawn into mountain harlotry, but you into sea-swimming, and through this there is no pleasure at all, no grace, no charm, but everything is unadorned and rustic and horrid, no conjugal marriages, no social friendships, no affections of children, but a monstrous overflow and the unsavory distaste of squalid pacts.

haec illa verbosa et satis curiosa avis in auribus Veneris fili lacerans existimationem ganniebat.

This was that verbose and quite curious bird, yapping in Venus’s ears and tearing to pieces the reputation of her son.

At Venus irata solidum exclamat repente: 'ergo iam ille bonus filius meus habet amicam aliquam? prome agedum, quae sola mihi servis amanter, nomen eius, quae puerum ingenuum et investem sollicitavit, sive illa de Nympharum populo seu de Horarum numero seu de Musarum choro vel de mearum Gratiarum ministerio.'

But Venus, enraged, suddenly cries out at full voice: 'So then now that good son of mine has some girlfriend? Out with it then, you who alone serve me lovingly, the name of her who has solicited the boy, freeborn and unclad—whether she be from the people of the Nymphs or of the number of the Hours or of the chorus of the Muses or from the ministry of my Graces.'

Nec loquax illa conticuit avis, sed 'nescio,' inquit, 'domina: puto puellam—si probe memini, Psyches nomine dicitur—efflicte cupere.' Tunc indignata Venus exclamavit vel maxime: 'Psychen ille, meae formae succubam, mei nominis aemulam, si vere diligit, nimirum illud incrementum lenam me putavit, cuius monstratu puellam illam cognosceret.'

Nor did that loquacious bird fall silent, but said, 'I do not know, mistress: I think the girl—if I remember rightly, she is said by the name Psyche—desires him desperately.' Then Venus, most indignant, cried out: 'Psyche—that underling to my beauty, a rival of my name—if he truly loves her, plainly that offspring of mine has thought me a procuress, by whose showing he might make that girl's acquaintance.'

[29] Haec quiritans properiter emergit e mari suumque protinus aureum thalamum petit, et reperto sicut audierat aegroto puero, iam inde a foribus quam maxime boans, 'honesta,' inquit, 'haec et natalibus nostris bonaeque tuae frugi congruentia, ut primum quidem tuae parentis—immo dominae—praecepta calcares, nec sordidis amoribus inimicam meam cruciares, verum etiam hoc aetatis puer tuis licentiosis et immaturis iungeres amplexibus, ut ego nurum scilicet tolerarem inimicam? sed utique praesumis nugo et corruptor et inamabilis te solum generosum, nec me iam per aetatem posse concipere. velim ergo scias multo te meliorem filium alium genituram, immo ut contumeliam magis sentias, aliquem de meis adoptaturam vernulis eique donaturam istas pinnas et flammas et arcum et ipsas sagittas et omnem meam supellectilem, quam tibi non ad hos usus dederam.

[29] Crying out thus, she quickly emerges from the sea and straightway makes for her golden bridal-chamber, and, finding the boy ailing as she had heard, now from the very threshold bellowing as loudly as possible, she says: “Honorable, are these things, and congruent with our natal rank and with your good sobriety—that, first indeed, you should trample upon the precepts of your parent—nay, of your mistress—and with sordid loves torture my enemy; but even that, a boy of this age, you should yoke to your licentious and immature embraces, so that I should, forsooth, tolerate a daughter‑in‑law who is my enemy? But of course you presume, you trifler and corrupter and unlovable one, that you alone are well‑born, and that I, by reason of my age, can no longer conceive. I would have you know, therefore, that another son much better than you will be begotten—nay rather, that you may feel the insult more keenly, I shall adopt someone from my home‑born slaves and to him I will donate those wings and flames and the bow and the very arrows and all my apparatus, which I did not give to you for these uses.”

nec enim de patris tui bonis ad instructionem istam quicquam concessum est.

for indeed nothing from your father’s goods has been conceded for that equipment.

[30] 'Sed male prima pueritia inductus es et acutas manus habes et maiores tuos irreverenter pulsasti totiens et ipsam matrem tuam, me inquam ipsam, parricida denudas cotidie et percussisti saepius et quasi viduam utique contemnis nec vitricum tuum fortissimum illum maximumque bellatorem metuis. quidni? cui saepius in angorem mei paelicatus puellas propinare consuesti.

[30] 'But you have been badly trained in your earliest boyhood, and you have acute hands, and you have so often irreverently struck your elders, and your very mother herself—me, I say, myself—parricide, you strip naked every day, and you have struck more than once; and you, as if I were a widow, indeed contemn me, nor do you fear your stepfather, that most strong and greatest warrior. Why not? to whom you have more than once been accustomed, to the anguish of my rival-wifehood, to ply girls as drink.'

sed iam faxo te lusus huius paeniteat et sentias acidas et amaras istas nuptias. sed nunc inrisui habita quid agam? quo me conferam?

but now I will make you repent of this play, and feel those nuptials to be acid and bitter. but now, held to derision, what am I to do? whither shall I betake myself?

quibus modis stelionem istum cohibeam? petamne auxilium ab inimica mea Sobrietate, quam propter huius ipsius luxuriam offendi saepius? at rusticae squalentisque feminae conloquium prorsus horresco.

by what methods am I to cohibit that cheat? shall I seek aid from my enemy Sobriety, whom I have often offended on account of this very one’s luxury? but I positively shudder at the colloquy of a rustic and squalid woman.

nec tamen vindictae solacium undeunde spernendum est. illa mihi prorsus adhibenda est nec ulla alia, quae castiget asperrime nugonem istum, pharetram explicet et sagittas dearmet, arcum enodet, taedam deflammet, immo et ipsum corpus eius acrioribus remediis coerceat. tunc iniuriae meae litatum crediderim, cum eius comas, quas istis manibus meis subinde aureo nitore perstrinxi, deraserit, pinnas, quas meo gremio nectarei fontis infeci, praetotonderit.'

nor yet must the solace of vengeance, from wherever it comes, be scorned. that one must absolutely be applied by me, and no other—the one who will chastise most harshly that trifler, unpack the quiver and disarm the arrows, unstring the bow, deflame the torch, nay, even coerce his very body with sharper remedies. then I shall believe my injury has been propitiated, when she has shaved off his hair, which with these very hands of mine I have repeatedly polished with golden sheen, and has close-cropped the pinions which in my lap I imbued with the nectarous fountain.'

[31] Sic effata foras sese proripit infesta et stomachata biles venerias. sed eam protinus Ceres et Iuno continantur visamque vultu tumido quaesiere, cur truci supercilio tantam venustatem micantium oculorum coerceret. at illa 'oportune,' inquit, 'ardenti prorsus isto meo pectori violentiam scilicet perpetraturae venitis.

[31] Having spoken thus, she rushes out, hostile and with her Venusian bile inflamed. But Ceres and Juno immediately detain her, and, seeing her with a swollen countenance, asked why with a grim brow she was coercing so great a comeliness of her flashing eyes. But she said, 'Timely, you come—evidently to perpetrate violence upon this very burning breast of mine.'

sed totis, oro, vestris viribus Psychen illam fugitivam volaticam mihi requirite. nec enim vos utique domus meae famosa fabula et non dicendi filii mei facta latuerunt.'

but with all, I beg, your forces, seek out for me that runaway, volatile Psyche. nor indeed have the notorious tale of my house and the deeds of my unnamable son escaped you.'

Tunc illae, non ignarae quae gesta sunt, palpare Veneris iram saevientem sic adortae: 'quid tale, domina, deliquit tuus filius, ut animo pervicaci voluptates illius impugnes et, quam ille diligit, tu quoque perdere gestias? quod autem, oramus, isti crimen, si puellae lepidae libenter arrisit? an ignoras eum masculum et iuvenem esse vel certe iam, quot sit annorum, oblita es? an, quod aetatem portat bellule, puer tibi semper videtur?

Then they, not unaware of what had been done, set about to palpate—soothe—Venus’s raging wrath and thus addressed her: “What such thing, mistress, has your son delinquently done, that with a pervicacious spirit you assail his voluptuities, and you too are eager to destroy the one whom he loves? And what, we pray, is the crime in this for him, if he gladly smiled upon a pretty girl? Or do you not know that he is a male and a youth—or at least by now have you forgotten how many years old he is? Or is it because he carries his age prettily that he always seems a boy to you?”

mater autem tu et praeterea cordata mulier filii tui lusus semper explorabis curiose, et in eo luxuriem culpabis et amores revinces, et tuas artes tuasque delicias in formonso filio reprehendes? quis autem te deum, quis hominum patietur passim cupidines populis disseminantem, cum tuae domus amores amare coerceas et vitiorum muliebrium publicam praecludas officinam?'

But you—a mother and, moreover, a prudent woman—will you always curiously probe the play of your son, and therein blame wantonness and refute his loves, and will you reprehend your own arts and your own delights in your handsome son? Who of the gods, who of men, will endure you indiscriminately disseminating desires among peoples, while you bitterly restrain the loves of your own household and preclude the public workshop of womanly vices?

Sic illae metu sagittarum patrocinio gratioso Cupidini, quamvis absenti, blandiebantur. sed Venus indignata ridicule tractari suas iniurias praeversis illis alterorsus concito gradu pelago viam capessit.

Thus they, in fear of the arrows, were coaxing, with gracious advocacy for Cupid—even though he was absent. But Venus, indignant that her injuries were being handled ridiculously, turning away from them in the opposite direction, with a hastened step takes up the road over the sea.

[6.1] Interea Psyche variis iactabatur discursibus, dies noctesque mariti vestigationibus inquieta animo, tanto cupidior iratum licet, si non uxoriis blanditiis lenire, certe servilibus precibus propitiare. et prospecto templo quodam in ardui montis vertice 'unde autem,' inquit, 'scio an istic meus degat dominus?' et ilico dirigit citatum gradum, quem defectum prorsus adsiduis laboribus spes incitabat et votum. iamque naviter emensis celsioribus iugis pulvinaribus sese proximam intulit.

[6.1] Meanwhile Psyche was tossed about by various coursings, days and nights restless in mind with investigations for her husband, the more eager—though he was angry—if she could not soften him by wifely blandishments, at least to propitiate him by servile prayers. And catching sight of a certain temple on the summit of a steep mountain, she said, ‘But how do I know whether my lord dwells there?’ and straightway she directs a quickened step, which, though utterly spent by assiduous labors, hope and a vow incited. And now, having briskly traversed the higher ridges with their cushion-like slopes, she brought herself close within.

videt spicas frumentarias in acervo et alias flexiles in corona et spicas hordei videt. erant et falces et operae messoriae mundus omnis, sed cuncta passim iacentia et incuria confusa et, ut solet aestu, laborantium manibus proiecta. haec singula Psyche curiose dividit et discretim semota rite componit, rata scilicet nullius dei fana ac caerimonias neglegere se debere, sed omnium benivolam misericordiam corrogare.

she sees grain-ears in a heap, and others pliant in a garland, and she sees ears of barley. There were also sickles and the whole apparatus of harvesting work, but everything lay scattered here and there and, through neglect, in confusion, and, as is wont in the heat, flung from the hands of the laborers. Psyche carefully separates these items one by one and, having set them apart, duly arranges them, thinking, of course, that she ought to neglect the fanes and ceremonies of no god, but to solicit the benevolent mercy of all.

[2] Haec eam sollicite seduloque curantem Ceres alma deprehendit et longum exclamat protinus: 'ain, Psyche miseranda? totum per orbem Venus anxia disquisitione tuum vestigium furens animi requirit, teque ad extremum supplicium expetit et totis numinis sui viribus ultionem flagitat: tu vero rerum mearum tutelam nunc geris et aliud quicquam cogitas nisi de tua salute?

[2] As she was attending to these things solicitously and assiduously, nurturing Ceres apprehended her and immediately cries out at length: 'What—Psyche, pitiable one? Throughout the whole world Venus, with anxious inquisition, seeks your trace, raging in mind, and pursues you for the utmost punishment, and with all the forces of her numen she clamors for vengeance: and you indeed now bear the tutelage of my affairs and are thinking of anything other than your own safety?'

Tunc Psyche pedes eius advoluta et uberi fletu rigans deae vestigia humumque verrens crinibus suis, multiiugis precibus editis veniam postulabat: 'per ego te frugiferam tuam dexteram istam deprecor, per laetificas messium caerimonias, per tacita secreta cistarum, et per famulorum tuorum draconum pinnata curricula et glebae Siculae sulcamina, et currum rapacem et terram tenacem, et illuminarum Proserpinae nuptiarum demeacula et luminosarum filiae inventionum remeacula, et cetera quae silentio tegit Eleusinis Atticae sacrarium: miserandae Psyches animae, supplicis tuae, subsiste. inter istam spicarum congeriem patere vel pauculos dies delitescam, quoad deae tantae saeviens ira spatio temporis mitigetur vel certe meae vires diutino labore fessae quietis intervallo leniantur.'

Then Psyche, having flung herself at her feet and, with copious weeping, wetting the goddess’s footsteps and sweeping the ground with her hair, after uttering manifold prayers was asking for pardon: ‘By your fruit-bearing right hand I implore you; by the gladdening ceremonies of the harvests; by the silent secrets of the cistae; and by the winged courses of your servant-dragons and the furrowings of the Sicilian clod, and the snatching chariot and the tenacious earth, and the descent-paths of the illuminating nuptials of Proserpina and the return-paths of the luminous discoveries of the daughter, and the rest which the Eleusinian shrine of Attica covers with silence: stand by the soul of pitiable Psyche, your suppliant. Allow that amid this heap of ears of grain I hide even for a few days, until the raging wrath of so great a goddess is mitigated by the passage of time, or at least my forces, wearied by long labor, are soothed by an interval of rest.’

[3] Suscipit Ceres: 'tuis quidem lacrimosis precibus et commoveor et opitulari cupio, sed cognatae meae, cum qua etiam foedus antiquum amicitiae colo, bonae praeterea feminae, malam gratiam subire nequeo. decede itaque istis aedibus protinus et quod a me retenta custoditaque non fueris optimi consule.'

[3] Ceres takes it up: 'By your tearful prayers I am indeed moved, and I desire to succor you, but I cannot incur ill favor with my kinswoman, with whom I also cultivate an ancient pact of friendship, a good woman besides. Depart therefore from this house forthwith, and count it for the best that you have not been held back and kept in custody by me.'

Contra spem suam repulsa Psyche et afflicta duplici maestitia iter retrorsum porrigens inter subsitae convallis sublucidum lucum prospicit fanum sollerti fabrica structum. nec ullam vel dubiam spei melioris viam volens omittere, sed adire cuiuscumque dei veniam, sacratis foribus proximat. videt dona pretiosa et lacinias auro litteratas ramis arborum postibusque suffixas, quae cum gratia facti nomen deae, cui fuerant dicata, testabantur. tunc genu nixa et manibus aram tepentem amplexa detersis ante lacrimis sic adprecatur:

Repulsed contrary to her hope and afflicted with double sadness, Psyche, extending her journey backward, amid the somewhat-lucid grove of a low-lying valley espies a shrine constructed with skillful workmanship. And, willing to omit no way to better hope, even a doubtful one, but to seek the pardon of whatever god, she approaches the consecrated doors. She sees precious gifts and strips of cloth lettered with gold fastened to the branches of the trees and to the doorposts, which, with a note of gratitude for the favor done, attested the name of the goddess to whom they had been dedicated. Then, with knee bent and, with her hands, embracing the tepid altar, her tears first wiped away, she thus prays:

[4] 'Magni Iovis germana et coniuga, sive tu Sami, quae sola partu vagituque et alimonia tua gloriatur, tenes vetusta delubra; sive celsae Carthaginis, quae te virginem vectura leonis caelo commeantem percolit, beatas sedes frequentas; sive prope ripas Inachi, qui te iam nuptam Tonantis et reginam dearum memorat, inclitis Argivorum praesides moenibus; quam cunctus oriens Zygiam veneratur et omnis occidens Lucinam appellat: sis meis extremis casibus Iuno Sospita meque in tantis exanclatis laboribus defessam imminentis periculi metu libera. quod sciam, soles praegnatibus periclitantibus ultro subvenire.'

[4] 'Sister and spouse of great Jove, whether you hold the ancient shrines of Samos, which alone boasts in your birth, your infant-cry, and your nourishment; or whether you frequent the blessed seats of lofty Carthage, which, conveying you—a virgin borne by a lion—venerates you as you pass through the sky; or whether near the banks of Inachus—who proclaims you now the bride of the Thunderer and the queen of the goddesses—guardian over the renowned walls of the Argives; whom all the East venerates as Zygia and all the West calls Lucina: be Juno Sospita to my extremest misfortunes, and free me, wearied by such labors undergone, from the fear of imminent peril. So far as I know, you are wont to come of your own accord to the aid of pregnant women in danger.'

Ad istum modum supplicanti statim sese Iuno cum totius sui numinis augusta dignitate praesentat et protinus 'quam vellem' inquit, 'per fidem, nutum meum precibus tuis accommodare. sed contra voluntatem Veneris, nurus meae, quam filiae semper dilexi loco, praestare me pudor non sinit. tunc etiam legibus, quae servos alienos profugos invitis dominis vetant suscipi, prohibeor.'

To one supplicating in that manner, Juno at once presents herself with the august dignity of all her divinity, and straightway says: 'How I would wish, by my good faith, to accommodate my nod to your prayers. But against the will of Venus, my daughter-in-law, whom I have always cherished in the place of a daughter, shame does not allow me to grant this. Then too I am prohibited by the laws, which forbid that runaway slaves belonging to another be received against the wishes of their masters.'

[5] Isto quoque fortunae naufragio Psyche perterrita, nec indipisci iam maritum volatilem quiens, tota spe salutis deposita, sic ipsa suas cogitationes consuluit: 'iam quae possunt alia meis aerumnis temptari vel adhiberi subsidia, cui nec dearum quidem, quamquam volentium, potuerunt prodesse suffragia? quo rursum itaque tantis laqueis inclusa vestigium porrigam, quibusque tectis vel etiam tenebris abscondita magnae Veneris inevitabiles oculos effugiam? quin igitur masculum tandem sumis animum et cassae speculae renuntias fortiter et ultroneam te dominae tuae reddis et vel sera modestia saevientes impetus eius mitigas?

[5] Frightened by this shipwreck of fortune too, and no longer able to catch her winged husband, with all hope of deliverance laid aside, Psyche thus consulted her own thoughts: 'Now what other aids can be tried or applied to my afflictions, for whom not even the suffrages of the goddesses, although willing, could be of help? Whither then, shut in again by such snares, shall I extend my step, and under what roofs or even in what darkness, hidden, shall I escape the unavoidable eyes of great Venus? Why then do you not at last take up a masculine spirit and bravely renounce your vain watch, and of your own accord surrender yourself to your mistress, and with even belated modesty mitigate her raging onslaughts?'

qui scias an etiam quem diu quaeritas illic in domo matris repperias?' sic ad dubium obsequium, immo ad certum exitium praeparata, principium futurae secum meditabatur obsecrationis.

who knows whether you might even find him whom you have long been seeking there in his mother's house?' thus, prepared for doubtful obedience—nay, for certain destruction—she was meditating with herself the beginning of the supplication to come.

[6] At Venus terrenis remediis inquisitionis abnuens caelum petit. iubet construi currum, quem ei Vulcanus aurifex subtili fabrica studiose poliverat et ante thalami rudimentum nuptiale munus obtulerat, limae tenuantis detrimento conspicuum et ipsius auri damno pretiosum. de multis quae circa cubiculum dominae stabulant procedunt quattuor candidae columbae et hilaris incessibus picta colla torquentes iugum gemmeum subeunt susceptaque domina laetae subvolant.

[6] But Venus, refusing earthly remedies for the inquiry, makes for the sky. She orders the chariot to be constructed, which Vulcan, a goldsmith, had diligently polished with subtle fabrication and had offered, before the initiation of the bridal chamber, as a nuptial gift—conspicuous by the detriment of the attenuating file and precious at the very loss of the gold itself. From among the many that are stabled around the mistress’s bedchamber, four white doves come forth, and, twisting their painted necks with cheerful gaits, they go beneath the jeweled yoke; their mistress taken up, they happily fly up.

currum deae prosequentes gannitu constrepenti lasciviunt passeres et ceterae quae dulce cantitant aves melleis modulis suave resonantes adventum deae pronuntiant. cedunt nubes et Caelum filiae panditur et summus aether cum gaudio suscipit deam, nec obvias aquilas vel accipitres rapaces pertimescit magnae Veneris canora familia.

Following the goddess’s chariot, the sparrows frolic lasciviously with resounding chirrup, and the other birds who sweetly sing, echoing softly with honeyed modulations, proclaim the advent of the goddess. The clouds give way and Heaven is opened for the daughter, and the highest ether receives the goddess with joy; nor does the canorous household of great Venus greatly fear the eagles encountered or the rapacious hawks.

[7] Tunc se protinus ad Iovis regias arces dirigit et petitu superbo Mercuri, dei vocalis, operae necessariam usuram postulat. nec renuit Iovis caerulum supercilium. tunc ovans ilico, comitante etiam Mercurio,Venus caelo demeat eique sollicite serit verba:

[7] Then straightway she directs herself to the royal citadels of Jove and, with a proud petition, requests the necessary loan of the service of Mercury, the vocal god. Nor did the cerulean brow of Jove refuse. Then, exulting at once, with Mercury also accompanying,Venus comes down from heaven and anxiously sows words to him:

'Frater Arcadi, scis nempe sororem tuam Venerem sine Mercuri praesentia nil unquam fecisse nec te praeterit utique, quanto iam tempore delitescentem ancillam nequiverim repperire. nil ergo superest quam tuo praeconio praemium investigationis publicitus edicere. fac ergo mandatum matures meum et indicia qui possit agnosci manifeste designes, ne, si quis occultationis illicitae crimen subierit, ignorantiae se possit excusatione defendere.' et simul dicens libellum ei porrigit ubi Psyches nomen continebatur et cetera.

'Brother of Arcadia, you know, to be sure, that your sister Venus has never done anything without Mercury’s presence, nor does it escape you, of course, how long a time now I have been unable to find my maidservant who is hiding. Nothing therefore remains except to proclaim publicly by your proclamation a reward for the investigation. Do, then, make haste to execute my mandate and designate plainly the indicia by which she can be recognized, lest, if anyone should incur the charge of illicit concealment, he be able to defend himself by the excuse of ignorance.' And as she spoke, she at once handed to him a little notice in which the name of Psyche was contained, and so forth.

quo facto protinus domum secessit.

which done, she immediately withdrew home.

[8] Nec Mercurius omisit obsequium. nam per omnium ora populorum passim discurrens sic mandatae praedicationis munus exequebatur: 'si quis a fuga retrahere vel occultam demonstrare poterit fugitivam regis filiam, Veneris ancillam, nomine Psychen, conveniat retro metas Murtias Mercurium praedicatorem, accepturus indicivae nomine ab ipsa Venere septem savia suavia et unum blandientis adpulsu linguae longe mellitum.'

[8] Nor did Mercury omit his service. For, running everywhere, on the lips of all peoples, he thus carried out the office of the mandated proclamation: 'If anyone can draw back from flight or point out the hidden fugitive daughter of the king, the handmaid of Venus, by name Psyche, let him meet Mercury the herald behind the Murcian turning-posts, to receive, by way of the informer’s bounty, from Venus herself seven sweet kisses and one, far honeyed, by the pressure of a coaxing tongue.'

Ad hunc modum pronuntiante Mercurio tanti praemii cupido certatim omnium mortalium studium adrexerat. quae res nunc vel maxime sustulit Psyches omnem cunctationem. iamque fores ei dominae proximanti occurrit una de famulitione Veneris nomine Consuetudo, statimque quantum maxime potuit, exclamat: 'tandem, ancilla nequissima, dominam habere te scire coepisti?

With Mercury pronouncing in this way, the cupidity for so great a reward had, in rivalry, aroused the zeal of all mortals. This circumstance now most especially removed all hesitation of Psyche. And now, as she was approaching the doors of her mistress, there ran to meet her one from the servantry of Venus, by the name Consuetude, and immediately, as loudly as she could, she shouted: 'At last, most wicked handmaid, have you begun to know that you have a mistress?

an pro cetera morum tuorum temeritate istud quoque nescire te fingis, quantos labores circa tuas inquisitiones sustinuerimus? sed bene, quod meas potissimum manus incidisti et inter Orci cancros iam ipsos haesisti, datura scilicet actutum tantae contumaciae poenas.'

or, to match the rest of your temerity of character, do you also feign not to know how many labors we have endured in our searches for you? but so much the better, that you have fallen most especially into my hands and have already stuck fast between the very pincers of Orcus, destined, of course, forthwith to pay the penalties for such contumacy.'

[9] Et audaciter in capillos eius inmissa manu trahebat eam nequaquam renitentem. quam ubi primum inductam oblatamque sibi conspexit Venus, laetissimum cachinnum extollit et qualem solent frequenter irati, caputque quatiens et ascalpens aurem dexteram 'tandem,' inquit, 'dignata es socrum tuam salutare? an potius maritum, qui tuo vulnere periclitatur, intervisere venisti?

[9] And, with her hand audaciously plunged into her hair, she was dragging her, by no means resisting. When Venus first caught sight of her led in and presented to her, she raises a most gleeful cachinnation—the sort which the angry are wont frequently to emit—and, shaking her head and scratching her right ear, says: 'At last, have you deigned to salute your mother‑in‑law? Or rather have you come to look in upon your husband, who is imperiled by your wound?'

sed esto secura, iam enim excipiam te ut bonam nurum condecet'; et 'ubi sunt,' inquit, 'Sollicitudo atque Tristities, ancillae meae?' quibus intro vocatis torquendam tradidit eam. at illae sequentes erile praeceptum Psychen misellam flagellis afflictam et ceteris tormentis excruciatam iterum dominae conspectui reddunt. tunc rursus sublato risu Venus 'et ecce,' inquit, 'nobis turgidi ventris sui lenocinio commovet miserationem, unde me praeclara subole aviam beatam scilicet faciat.

but be secure, for now I will receive you as befits a good daughter-in-law'; and 'where are,' she said, 'Solicitude and Sadness, my handmaids?' having called these inside, she handed her over to be tortured. But they, following the mistress’s command, return again to their mistress’s sight poor little Psyche, afflicted with whips and racked by other torments. Then again, raising a laugh, Venus 'and behold,' she said, 'by the lure of her swollen belly she moves us to compassion, so that by an illustrious offspring she would of course make me a blessed grandmother.

felix vero ego, quae in ipso aetatis meae flore vocabor avia, et vilis ancillae filius nepos Veneris audiet. quanquam inepta ego frustra filium dicam; impares enim nuptiae et praeterea in villa sine testibus et patre non consentiente factae legitimae non possunt videri ac per hoc spurius iste nascetur, si tamen partum omnino perferre te patiemur.'

happy indeed am I, who in the very flower of my age shall be called a grandmother, and the son of a vile handmaid will be called the grandson of Venus. although, silly as I am, I shall in vain call him a son; for unequal nuptials—and, besides, ones effected in a villa without witnesses and with the father not consenting—cannot appear legitimate, and through this that one will be born spurious, if, however, we allow you at all to carry the birth to term.'

[10] His editis involat eam vestemque plurifariam diloricat capilloque discisso et capite conquassato graviter affligit, et accepto frumento et hordeo et milio et papavere et cicere et lente et faba commixtisque acervatim confusis in unum grumulum sic ad illam: 'videris enim mihi tam deformis ancilla nullo alio sed tantum sedulo ministerio amatores tuos promereri: iam ergo et ipsa frugem tuam periclitabor. discerne seminum istorum passivam congeriem singulisque granis rite dispositis atque seiugatis ante istam vesperam opus expeditum approbato mihi.'

[10] With these things uttered, she swoops upon her and tears her garment to tatters in many places, and, with her hair torn and her head shaken, grievously afflicts her; and, taking wheat and barley and millet and poppy seed and chickpea and lentil and bean, and, the lot commixed and in heap-wise fashion confused into one little mound, she thus addresses her: 'for you seem to me such a misshapen maidservant as to win the favor of your lovers by no other, but only by assiduous ministry: therefore I too will now make trial of your produce. Discriminate this indiscriminate congeries of seeds, and, with each grain rightly arranged and separated, establish for me the work finished and approved before this evening.'

Sic assignato tantorum seminum cumulo ipsa cenae nuptiali concessit. nec Psyche manus admolitur inconditae illi et inextricabili moli, sed immanitate praecepti consternata silens obstupescit. tunc formicula illa parvula atque ruricola, certa difficultatis tantae laborisque, miserta contubernalis magni dei socrusque saevitiam execrata, discurrens naviter convocat corrogatque cunctam formicarum accolarum classem: 'miseremini, terrae omniparentis agiles alumnae, miseremini et Amoris uxori, puellae lepidae, periclitanti prompta velocitate succurrite.' ruunt aliae superque aliae sepedum populorum undae summoque studio singulae granatim totum digerunt acervum separatimque distributis dissitisque generibus e conspectu perniciter abeunt.

Thus, with the heap of so many seeds assigned, she herself withdrew to the nuptial dinner. Nor does Psyche apply her hands to that disordered and inextricable mass, but, dumfounded by the enormity of the command, she stands silent and astonished. Then a tiny ant, a little country-dweller, certain of so great difficulty and toil, pitying the bedfellow of the great god and execrating the mother-in-law’s savagery, runs nimbly about and summons and musters the whole host of neighboring ants: ‘Have mercy, nimble nurslings of earth the all-parent; have mercy on the wife of Amor, a winsome girl; to one in peril, bring help with ready swiftness.’ Waves of six-footed peoples rush, one upon another, and with the utmost zeal each one, grain by grain, sorts the entire heap, and, the kinds separated and set apart, they swiftly depart from sight.

[11] Sed initio noctis e convivio nuptiali vino madens et fraglans balsama Venus remeat totumque revincta corpus rosis micantibus visaque diligentia miri laboris 'non tuum,' inquit, 'nequissima, nec tuarum manuum istud opus, sed illius, cui tuo, immo et ipsius, malo placuisti': et frusto cibarii panis ei proiecto cubitum facessit.

[11] But at the beginning of night, returning from the nuptial banquet soaked with wine and fragrant with balsams, Venus comes back, her whole body re-wreathed with glittering roses; and, when she had seen the diligence of the wondrous labor, she said, 'Not yours, most wicked one, nor is that the work of your hands, but of that one to whom you have pleased to your harm—nay, to his own as well'; and, having thrown her a morsel of common bread, she goes off to bed.

interim Cupido solus interioris domus unici cubiculi custodia clausus coercebatur acriter, partim ne petulanti luxurie vulnus gravaret, partim ne cum sua cupita conveniret. sic ergo distentis et sub uno tecto separatis amatoribus taetra nox exanclata.

Meanwhile Cupid alone was shut in custody within the sole bedchamber of the inner house and was being sternly restrained, partly lest he aggravate the wound by petulant luxury, partly lest he meet with his desired one. Thus then, with the lovers kept at a distance and, under one roof, separated, a foul night was toiled through.

Sed Aurora commodum inequitante vocatae Psychae Venus infit talia: 'videsne illud nemus, quod fluvio praeterluenti ripisque longis attenditur, cuius imi gurgites vicinum fontem respiciunt? oves ibi nitentes aurique colore florentes incustodito pastu vagantur. inde de coma pretiosi velleris floccum mihi confestim quoquo modo quaesitum afferas censeo.'

But as Dawn was just riding in, Venus speaks thus to the summoned Psyche: 'Do you see that grove, which is stretched along by the river flowing past and by the long banks, whose deepest whirlpools look back toward the neighboring spring? There sheep, shining and flowering with the color of gold, wander in unguarded pasture. From there I bid that you bring me at once, procured by whatever means, a tuft from the locks of the precious fleece.'

[12] Perrexit Psyche volenter non obsequium quidem illa functura, sed requiem malorum praecipitio fluvialis rupis habitura. sed inde de fluvio musicae suavis nutricula, leni crepitu dulcis aurae divinitus inspirata, sic vaticinatur arundo viridis: 'Psyche, tantis aerumnis exercita, neque tua miserrima morte meas sanctas aquas polluas nec vero istud horae contra formidabiles oves feras aditum, quoad de solis fraglantia mutuatae calorem truci rabie solent efferri cornuque acuto et fronte saxea et non nunquam venenatis morsibus in exitium saevire mortalium; sed dum meridies solis sedaverit vaporem et pecua spiritus fluvialis serenitate conquieverint, poteris sub illa procerissima platano, quae mecum simul unum fluentum bibit, latenter abscondere. et cum primum mitigata furia laxaverint oves animum, percussis frondibus attigui nemoris lanosum aurum repperies, quod passim stirpibus convexis obhaerescit.'

[12] Psyche proceeded willingly, indeed not about to perform that obedience, but to obtain a rest from her evils by a headlong plunge from the river’s cliff. But then from the river, the nurse of sweet music, the green reed, divinely inspired by the gentle whisper of a sweet breeze, thus vaticinates: 'Psyche, exercised by such great afflictions, do not with your most wretched death pollute my sacred waters, nor indeed at this hour make approach against the formidable wild sheep, so long as, borrowing heat from the blazing of the sun, they are wont to be carried out in savage madness and, with sharp horn and a stony brow, and sometimes with venomous bites, to rage to the destruction of mortals; but when midday has calmed the sun’s vapor and the flocks have rested in the serenity of the river’s breath, you will be able beneath that very tall plane tree, which together with me drinks one and the same stream, to hide secretly. And as soon as their fury is mitigated and the sheep relax their spirit, with the leaves of the adjoining grove struck, you will find the woolly gold, which here and there clings to the arched shrubs.'

[13] Sic harundo simplex et humana Psychen aegerrimam salutem suam docebat. nec auscultatu paenitendo diligenter instructa illa cessavit, sed observatis omnibus furatrina facili flaventis auri mollitie congestum gremium Veneri reportat. nec tamen apud dominam saltem secundi laboris periculum secundum testimonium meruit, sed contortis superciliis subridens amarum sic inquit: 'nec me praeterit huius quoque facti auctor adulterinus.

[13] Thus the reed, simple and humane, taught Psyche, most grievously afflicted, her own safety. Nor, by a listening not to be repented, diligently instructed, did she cease, but, all things observed, by easy pilfering, through the softness of golden-yellow gold, she brings back to Venus a lapful heaped up. Nor yet with her mistress did she merit at least a favorable testimony for the peril of the second labor, but with eyebrows contorted, smiling bitterly, she thus says: 'nor does it escape me that the author of this deed too is adulterine.

sed iam nunc ego sedulo periclitabor an oppido forti animo singularique prudentia sis praedita. videsne insistentem celsissimae illi rupi montis ardui verticem, de quo fontis atri fuscae defluunt undae proxumaeque conceptaculo vallis inclusae Stygias inrigant paludes et rauca Cocyti fluenta nutriunt? indidem mihi de summi fontis penita scaturrigine rorem rigentem hauritum ista confestim defers urnula.' sic aiens crustallo dedolatum vasculum, insuper ei graviora comminata, tradidit.

but now I will diligently put to the proof whether you are endowed with an exceedingly stout spirit and a singular prudence. Do you see the summit of the steep mountain standing upon that very lofty crag, from which the dark waves of a black spring flow down, and, enclosed in the receptacle of a nearby valley, irrigate the Stygian marshes and nourish the hoarse streams of Cocytus? From that same place, from the inmost gushing of the highest spring, you will at once carry back for me in this little urn frost-stiffened dew drawn up.' Saying thus, she handed over a little vessel carved from crystal, and, moreover, after threatening her with graver things, she delivered it.

[14] At illa studiose gradum celerans montis extremum petit tumulum certe vel illic inventura vitae pessimae finem. sed cum primum praedicti iugi conterminos locos appulit, videt rei vastae letalem difficultatem. namque saxum immani magnitudine procerum et inaccessa salebritate lubricum mediis e faucibus lapidis fontes horridos evomebat, qui statim proni foraminis lacunis editi perque proclive delapsi et angusti canalis exarato contecti tramite proxumam convallem latenter incidebant.

[14] But she, zealously quickening her step, seeks the farthest knoll of the mountain, surely to find even there an end of her most wretched life. But when first she reached the bordering places of the aforesaid ridge, she sees the lethal difficulty of the vast task. For a rock, towering in immense magnitude and lubricous with inaccessible roughness, was vomiting from the midst of the stone’s jaws horrid springs, which, immediately issued from the hollows of a sloping aperture and, having glided down the declivity and being covered by the furrowed track of a narrow canal, were stealthily cutting into the nearest valley.

dextra laevaque cautibus cavatis proserpunt et longa colla porrecti saeviunt saevi dracones inconivae vigiliae luminibus addictis et in perpetuam lucem pupulis excubantibus. iamque et ipsae semet muniebant vocales aquae. nam et 'discede' et 'quid facis?

on the right and on the left from hollowed crags there crawl forth, and with long necks outstretched rage, savage dragons—unwinking in vigil, their eyes addicted, and with their pupils keeping watch in perpetual light. and now even the waters themselves, being vocal, were fortifying themselves: for both 'depart!' and 'what are you doing?

vide' et 'quid agis? cave' et 'fuge' et 'peribis' subinde clamant. sic impossibilitate ipsa mutata in lapidem Psyche, quamvis praesenti corpore, sensibus tamen aberat et inextricabilis periculi mole prorsus obruta lacrimarum etiam extremo solacio carebat.

'look!' and 'what are you doing? beware!' and 'flee!' and 'you will perish,' they repeatedly cry. Thus, by the impossibility itself Psyche, although present in body, was changed into stone; yet she was absent in her senses, and, utterly overwhelmed by the mass of an inextricable peril, she lacked even the last solace of tears.

[15] Nec Providentiae bonae graves oculos innocentis animae latuit aerumna. nam supremi Iovis regalis ales illa repente propansis utrimque pinnis affuit rapax aquila memorque veteris obsequii, quo ductu Cupidinis Iovi pocillatorem Phrygium sustulerat, oportunam ferens opem deique numen in uxoris laboribus percolens alti culminis diales vias deserit et ob os puellae praevolans incipit: 'at tu, simplex alioquin et expers rerum talium, sperasne te sanctissimi nec minus truculenti fontis vel unam stillam posse furari vel omnino contingere? diis etiam ipsique Iovi formidabiles aquas istas Stygias vel fando comperisti, quodque vos deieratis per numina deorum, deos per Stygis maiestatem solere?

[15] Nor did the hardship of the innocent soul escape the grave eyes of good Providence. For the regal bird of highest Jove— that rapacious eagle—suddenly was present, with wings outspread on both sides, mindful of former service, by which, under Cupid’s guidance, it had lifted up to Jove the Phrygian cup-bearer, bringing opportune aid and, cultivating the god’s numen in the labors of his wife, it leaves the celestial ways of the lofty summit and, flying before the girl’s face, begins: 'But you, simple otherwise and inexperienced in such matters, do you hope that you can steal even a single drop, or at all even touch, of that most holy and no less truculent spring? You have learned even by report that those Stygian waters are fearsome to the gods and to Jove himself, and that whereas you swear by the divinities of the gods, the gods are accustomed to swear by the majesty of Styx?'

sed cedo istam urnulam.'

but come, hand over that little urn.'

Et protinus adreptam completum aquae festinat libratisque pinnarum nutantium molibus inter genas saevientium dentium et trisulca vibramina draconum remigium dextra laevaque porrigens volentes aquas et, ut abiret innoxius, praestantes excipit, commentus ob iussum Veneris petere eique se praeministrare, quare paulo facilior adeundi fuit copia.

And forthwith, having snatched the little urn filled with water, he hastens, and, with the well-poised masses of his wavering pinions, extending his oarage to right and left amid the cheeks of raging teeth and the three-forked vibrations of the dragons, he takes up the waters willing and, assuring that he might depart unharmed, receives them—having feigned that, by the command of Venus, he was seeking them and would pre-minister to her—wherefore the opportunity of approaching was somewhat easier.

[16] Sic acceptam cum gaudio plenam urnulam Psyche Veneri citata rettulit. Nec tamen nutum deae saevientis vel tunc expiare potuit. nam sic eam maiora atque peiora flagitia comminans appellat renidens exitiabile: 'iam tu quidem maga videris quaedam mihi et alta prorsus malefica, quae talibus praeceptis meis obtemperasti naviter.

[16] Thus, having joyfully received the little urn full, Psyche, in haste, carried it back to Venus. Yet not even then could she expiate the nod of the raging goddess. For thus, threatening greater and worse outrages, she addresses her, smiling ruinously: 'Now indeed you seem to me some sort of maga, and a thoroughly deep malefica, you who have briskly obeyed such precepts of mine.

sed adhuc istud, mea pupula, ministrare debebis. sume istam pyxidem,' et dedit; 'protinus usque ad inferos et ipsius Orci ferales penates te derige. tunc conferens pyxidem Proserpinae 'petit de te Venus,' dicito, 'modicum de tua mittas ei formonsitate vel ad unam saltem dieculam sufficiens.

but still you will have to attend to this task, my little pupil. take that pyx,' and she gave it; 'straightway direct yourself all the way to the underworld and to the funereal Penates of Orcus himself. then, presenting the pyx to Proserpina, say, 'Venus asks of you,' that you send to her a small portion of your beauty, sufficient even for just one little day.

nam quod habuit, dum filium curat aegrotum, consumpsit atque contrivit omne.' sed haud immaturius redito, quia me necesse est indidem delitam theatrum deorum frequentare.'

for what she had, while she was caring for her sick son, she has consumed and utterly ground it all away.' but come back not too late, since it is necessary for me, right from there, pampered, to frequent the theater of the gods.'

[17] Tunc Psyche vel maxime sensit ultimas fortunas suas et velamento reiecto ad promptum exitium sese compelli manifeste comperit. quidni? quae suis pedibus ultro ad Tartarum manesque commeare cogeretur.

[17] Then Psyche most especially felt her ultimate fortunes, and, the veil cast aside, manifestly discovered herself being driven to swift destruction. Why not? she who was being compelled, unbidden, to go on her own feet to Tartarus and the shades.

nec cunctata diutius pergit ad quampiam turrim praealtam, indidem sese datura praecipitem; sic enim rebatur ad inferos recte atque pulcherrime se posse descendere. sed turris prorumpit in vocem subitam et 'quid te,' inquit, 'praecipitem, o misella, quaeris extinguere? quidque iam novissimo periculo laborique isto temere succumbis?

and delaying no longer she proceeds to a certain very tall tower, from there intending to cast herself headlong; for thus she supposed that to the Underworld she could descend rightly and most beautifully. But the tower bursts out in a sudden voice and says, 'Why do you, o poor little wretch, seek to extinguish yourself by a headlong plunge? And why do you now rashly succumb to this ultimate peril and that labor?'

nam si spiritus corpore tuo semel fuerit seiugatus, ibis quidem profecto ad imum Tartarum, sed inde nullo pacto redire poteris. mihi ausculta.

for if the spirit has once been disjoined from your body, you will indeed assuredly go to the bottom of Tartarus, but from there you will by no means be able to return. Hearken to me.

[18] 'Lacedaemo Achaiae nobilis civitas non longe sita est: huius conterminam deviis abditam locis quaere Taenarum. inibi spiraculum Ditis, et per portas hiantes monstratur iter invium, cui te limine transmeato simul commiseris, iam canale directo perges ad ipsam Orci regiam. sed non hactenus vacua debebis per illas tenebras incedere, sed offas polentae mulso concretas ambabus gestare manibus, at in ipso ore duas ferre stipes.

[18] 'Lacedaemon, a noble city of Achaia, is not situated far away: seek Taenarum, adjoining it, hidden in remote byways. There the breathing-vent of Dis is shown, and through gaping gates a pathless way, upon whose threshold, once you have crossed and committed yourself, you will go by a straight channel to the very royal palace of Orcus. But you must not advance thus far empty-handed through those shades, rather carry in both hands lumps of polenta congealed with mulsum, and in your very mouth bear two coins.

iamque confecta bona parte mortiferae viae continaberis claudum asinum lignorum gerulum cum agasone simili, qui te rogabit decidentis sarcinae fusticulos aliquos porrigas ei, sed tu nulla voce deprompta tacita praeterito. nec mora cum ad flumen mortuum venies, cui praefectus Charon, protenus expetens portorium, sic ad ripam ulteriorem sutili cumba deducit commeantes. ergo et inter mortuos avaritia vivit nec Charon ille et Ditis exactor, tantus deus, quicquam gratuito facit, sed moriens pauper viaticum debet quaerere et aes si forte prae manu non fuerit, nemo eum expirare patietur.

and now, with a good part of the death-bearing road completed, you will be detained by a lame donkey, a carrier of wood, with a like muleteer, who will ask you to proffer him some little sticks from his falling load; but you, with no word drawn forth, pass by in silence. without delay you will come to the dead river, whose prefect is Charon, who forthwith, demanding the ferry-fare, thus with a sewn skiff conducts the passengers to the farther bank. therefore even among the dead avarice lives, nor does that Charon, the exactor of Dis, so great a god, do anything gratis; but a poor man dying ought to seek viaticum, and if by chance a bronze-piece be not ready to hand, no one will allow him to expire.

huic squalido seni dabis nauli nomine de stipibus quas feres alteram, sic tamen ut ipse sua manu de tuo sumat ore. nec setius tibi pigrum fluentum transmeanti quidam supernatans senex mortuus putris adtollens manus orabit ut eum intra navigium trahas, nec tu tamen inlicita adflectare pietate.

to this squalid old man you will give, under the name of the naulum (passage-money), one of the coins you are carrying, yet in such a way that he himself with his own hand takes it from your mouth. nonetheless, as you cross the sluggish stream, a certain rotten dead old man, floating on the surface and lifting his hands, will beg that you draw him into the boat; but do not, however, be swayed by illicit piety.

[19] 'Transito fluvio modicum te progressam textrices orabunt anus telam struentes manus paulisper accommodes, nec id tamen tibi contingere fas est. nam haec omnia tibi et multa alia de Veneris insidiis orientur, ut vel unam de manibus omittas offulam. nec putes futile istud polentacium damnum leve; altera enim perdita lux haec tibi prorsus denegabitur.

[19] 'Once the river has been crossed, when you have advanced a little, old women weavers, setting up their web, will beg you to accommodate your hands for a little while; yet it is not lawful for this to befall you. For all these things for you, and many others, will arise from the ambushes of Venus, so that you may let slip even a single morsel from your hands. Nor think that loss of those polenta-cakes trifling; for, the other being lost, this light will be utterly denied you.

canis namque praegrandis, teriugo et satis amplo capite praeditus, immanis et formidabilis, tonantibus oblatrans faucibus mortuos, quibus iam nil mali potest facere, frustra territando ante ipsum limen et atra atria Proserpinae semper excubans servat vacuam Ditis domum. hunc offrenatum unius offulae praeda facile praeteribis ad ipsamque protinus Proserpinam introibis, quae te comiter excipiet ac benigne, ut et molliter assidere et prandium opipare suadeat sumere. sed tu et humi reside et panem sordidum petitum esto, deinde nuntiato quid adveneris, susceptoque quod offeretur rursus remeans canis saevitiam offula reliqua redime ac deinde avaro navitae data quam reservaveras stipe transitoque eius fluvio recolens priora vestigia ad istum caelestium siderum redies chorum.

for there is a very large dog, endowed with a triple-yoked and quite ample head, monstrous and formidable, barking with thundering jaws at the dead—whom now he can do no evil—terrifying them in vain, and always keeping watch before the very threshold and the black atria of Proserpina, he guards the vacant house of Dis. him, once bridled by the prey of a single morsel, you will easily pass, and straightway you will go in to Proserpina herself, who will receive you courteously and benignly, even urging you to sit softly and to take a sumptuous luncheon. but you sit on the ground and be for coarse, sordid bread begged; then announce why you have come, and, the thing offered having been taken up, returning again buy off the dog’s savagery with the remaining morsel, and then, with the coin given to the greedy boatman which you had reserved, and his river crossed, retracing your former footsteps you will return to that choir of the celestial stars.

sed inter omnia hoc observandum praecipue tibi censeo, ne velis aperire vel inspicere illam quam feres pyxidem vel omnino divinae formonsitatis abditum curare curiosius thensaurum.'

but among all things I especially advise that this be observed by you: do not wish to open or to inspect that pyxis which you will carry, nor at all to busy yourself more curiously about the hidden treasure of divine formosity.'

[20] Sic turris illa prospicua vaticinationis munus explicuit. nec morata Psyche pergit Taenarum sumptisque rite stipibus illis et offulis infernum decurrit meatum transitoque per silentium asinario debili et amnica stipe vectori data, neglecto supernatantis mortui desiderio et spretis textricum subdolis precibus et offulae cibo sopita canis horrenda rabie domum Proserpinae penetrat. nec offerentis hospitae sedile delicatum vel cibum beatum amplexa, sed ante pedes eius residens humilis cibario pane contenta Veneriam pertulit legationem.

[20] Thus that conspicuous tower unfolded the office of vaticination. And Psyche, not delaying, proceeds to Taenarum, and, having duly taken those coins and morsels, runs down the infernal passage; and, the lame ass-driver passed by in silence, and the riverine fee given to the ferryman, the desire of the floating dead neglected and the crafty prayers of the weavers scorned, and the dog, of horrendous rabidity, lulled by the food of a morsel, she penetrates the house of Proserpina. Nor did she embrace either the delicate seat or the blessed food of the hostess offering them, but, sitting humble before her feet, content with cibarial bread, she delivered the Venerian embassy.

statimque secreto repletam conclusamque pyxidem suscipit et offulae sequentis fraude caninis latratibus obseratis residuaque navitae reddita stipe longe vegetior ab inferis recurrit. et repetita atque adorata candida ista luce, quanquam festinans obsequium terminare, mentem capitur temeraria curiositate et 'ecce,' inquit, 'inepta ego divinae formonsitatis gerula, quae nec tantillum quidem indidem mihi delibo vel sic illi amatori meo formonso placitura,' et cum dicto reserat pyxidem.

and immediately she takes up the casket, filled with the secret and shut fast, and, by the trick of the next morsel, with the dogs’ barking shut up, and the remaining coin returned to the boatman, far more vigorous she runs back from the Underworld. And, that bright light revisited and adored, although hastening to terminate the service, she is captured in mind by temerarious curiosity and says, 'Look,' she says, 'I, the inept bearer of divine beauty, who do not take even the least little bit from there for myself, thus to please that handsome lover of mine,' and with that said she unseals the casket.

[21] Nec quicquam ibi rerum nec formonsitas ulla, sed infernus somnus ac vere Stygius, qui statim coperculo revelatus invadit eam crassaque soporis nebula cunctis eius membris perfunditur et in ipso vestigio ipsaque semita conlapsam possidet. et iacebat immobilis et nihil aliud quam dormiens cadaver.

[21] And there was nothing of things there nor any beauty at all, but an infernal sleep, truly Stygian, which, as soon as the lid was uncovered, rushed upon her; and a thick cloud of drowsiness suffused all her limbs, and on the very spot and on the path itself it took possession of her as she collapsed. And she lay motionless, nothing other than a sleeping cadaver.

Sed Cupido iam cicatrice solida revalescens nec diutinam suae Psyches absentiam tolerans per altissimam cubiculi quo cohibebatur elapsus fenestram refectisque pennis aliquanta quiete longe velocius provolans Psychen accurrit suam detersoque somno curiose et rursum in pristinam pyxidis sedem recondito Psychen innoxio punctulo sagittae suae suscitat et 'ecce,' inquit, 'rursum perieras, misella, simili curiositate. sed interim quidem tu provinciam, quae tibi matris meae praecepto mandata est, exsequere naviter, cetera egomet videro.' his dictis amator levis in pinnas se dedit, Psyche vero confestim Veneri munus reportat Proserpinae.

But Cupid, now revalescing with the scar solid and not tolerating the long-standing absence of his Psyche, slipped out through the very high window of the bedroom in which he was kept, and his wings refreshed by some rest, flying forth far more swiftly, he hastens to his Psyche; and, the sleep carefully wiped off and again put back in the casket to its former seat, he rouses Psyche with a harmless little prick of his arrow and says, ‘Behold, you would again have perished, poor little wretch, by similar curiosity. But meanwhile do you briskly carry out the province that by my mother’s precept has been entrusted to you; I myself will see to the rest.’ Having said this, the light lover gave himself to his wings, but Psyche immediately carries back to Venus Proserpina’s gift.

[22] Interea Cupido amore nimio peresus et aegra facie, matris suae repentinam sobrietatem pertimescens, ad armillum redit alisque pernicibus caeli penetrato vertice magno Iovi supplicat suamque causam probat. tunc Iuppiter prehensa Cupidinis buccula manuque ad os suum relata consaviat atque sic ad illum 'licet tu,' inquit, 'domine fili, numquam mihi concessu deum decretum servaris honorem, sed istud pectus meum, quo leges elementorum et vices siderum disponuntur, convulneraris assiduis ictibus crebrisque terrenae libidinis foedaveris casibus contraque leges et ipsam Iuliam disciplinamque publicam turpibus adulteriis existimationem famamque meam laeseris in serpentes, in ignes, in feras, in aves et gregalia pecua serenos vultus meos sordide reformando, at tamen modestiae meae memor quodque inter istas meas manus creveris, cuncta perficiam, dum tamen scias aemulos tuos cavere ac, si qua nunc in terris puella praepollet pulcritudine, praesentis beneficii vicem per eam mihi repensare te debere.'

[22] Meanwhile Cupid, consumed by excessive love and with a sickly visage, fearing his mother’s sudden sobriety, returns to his little chamber, and, with swift wings, after the summit of heaven was penetrated, he supplicates great Jove and proves his case. Then Jupiter, having seized Cupid’s little cheek and, drawing it to his own mouth with his hand, kisses him, and thus to him he says: ‘Granted that you, lord son, never observe for me the honor decreed by the consent of the gods, but that you wound this my breast—whereby the laws of the elements and the vicissitudes of the stars are ordered—with assiduous blows, and have defiled it with frequent falls into earthly libido, and, against the laws and the Julian statute and the public discipline, you have injured my reputation and good name with shameful adulteries, by basely refashioning my serene faces into snakes, into fires, into wild beasts, into birds, and into herd animals; yet, mindful of my moderation and of the fact that you grew up among these my hands, I will accomplish everything—provided, however, that you know to beware your rivals, and that, if any girl now on earth is preeminent in pulchritude, you must repay me for the present benefaction in return through her.’

[23] Sic fatus iubet Mercurium deos omnes ad contionem protinus convocare ac, si qui coetu caelestium defuisset, in poenam decem milium nummum conventum iri pronuntiare. quo metu statim completo caelesti theatro pro sede sublimi sedens procerus Iuppiter sic enuntiat:

[23] Having thus spoken, he orders Mercury to convoke all the gods to an assembly forthwith, and to pronounce that, if anyone should be missing from the gathering of the celestials, he would be proceeded against for a penalty of 10,000 coins. At this threat, with the celestial theater immediately filled, Jupiter, towering, sitting upon a sublime seat as a throne, thus announces:

'Dei conscripti Musarum albo, adolescentem istum quod manibus meis alumnatus sim, profecto scitis omnes. cuius primae iuventutis caloratos impetus freno quodam coercendos existimavi; sat est cotidianis eum fabulis ob adulteria cunctasque corruptelas infamatum. tollenda est omnis occasio et luxuria puerilis nuptialibus pedicis alliganda.

'You gods enrolled on the roll of the Muses, that I have fostered that adolescent with my own hands, assuredly you all know. I have judged that the heated impulses of his first youth must be restrained by a certain bridle; it is enough that he is defamed by daily tales for adulteries and all corruptions. Every opportunity must be removed, and his boyish luxury must be bound with nuptial fetters.

puellam elegit et virginitate privavit: teneat, possideat, amplexus Psychen semper suis amoribus perfruatur.'

he chose the girl and deprived her of her virginity: let him hold, let him possess, embracing Psyche let him always fully enjoy his amours.'

Et ad Venerem conlata facie, 'nec tu,' inquit, 'filia, quicquam contristere nec prosapiae tantae tuae statuque de matrimonio mortali metuas. iam faxo nuptias non impares, sed legitimas et iure civili congruas.' et ilico per Mercurium arripi Psychen et in caelum perduci iubet. porrecto ambrosiae poculo, 'sume,' inquit, 'Psyche, et immortalis esto, nec umquam digredietur a tuo nexu Cupido, sed istae vobis erunt perpetuae nuptiae.'

And, with his face turned toward Venus, he said, 'nor you, daughter, be in any way saddened, nor fear for your so great prosapia and for your rank on account of a mortal marriage. I will now see to it that the nuptials are not unequal, but legitimate and congruent with civil law.' and straightway he orders Psyche to be seized by Mercury and to be conveyed into heaven. with a cup of ambrosia held out, 'take,' he said, 'Psyche, and be immortal, and Cupid will never depart from your bond, but these nuptials will be perpetual for you both.'

[24] Nec mora cum cena nuptialis affluens exhibetur. Accumbebat summum torum maritus, Psychen gremio suo complexus. sic et cum sua Iunone Iuppiter ac deinde per ordinem toti dei.

[24] No delay, when the nuptial banquet, overflowing, is exhibited. The husband reclines on the highest couch, embracing Psyche in his lap. So too Jupiter with his own Juno, and then, in order, all the gods.

tunc poculum nectaris, quod vinum deorum est, Iovi quidem suus pocillator ille rusticus puer, ceteris vero Liber ministrabat. Vulcanus cenam coquebat, Horae rosis et ceteris floribus purpurabant omnia, Gratiae spargebant balsama, Musae voce canora personabant; Apollo cantavit ad citharam, Venus suavi musicae superingressa formonsa saltavit, scaena sibi sic concinnata, ut Musae quidem chorum canerent aut tibias inflarent, Saturus et Paniscus ad fistulam dicerent. sic rite Psyche convenit in manum Cupidinis et nascitur illis maturo partu filia, quam Voluptatem nominamus.

then the cup of nectar, which is the wine of the gods, to Jove indeed his own cupbearer—that rustic boy—served, but to the others Liber was ministering. Vulcan was cooking the dinner; the Horae were purpling everything with roses and the other flowers; the Gratiae were scattering balsams; the Musae were resounding with tuneful voice; Apollo sang to the cithara; Venus, the shapely one, stepping in over the sweet music, danced, the scene thus arranged for herself, so that the Musae indeed would sing the chorus or blow the tibiae, and a Satyr and a Paniscus would declaim to the reed-pipe. thus duly Psyche was joined into the hand of Cupid, and to them a daughter was born at full term, whom we name Voluptas (Pleasure).

[25] Sic captivae puellae delira et temulenta illa narrabat anicula; sed astans ego non procul dolebam mehercules quod pugillares et stilum non habebam qui tam bellam fabellam praenotarem.

[25] Thus to the captive girl that delirious and temulent little old woman was telling her tale; but I, standing not far off, by Hercules, was sorry that I did not have writing-tablets and a stylus with which I might pre-note so pretty a little fable.