Ovid: FASTI

Tempus ad hoc, lustris bis iam mihi quinque peractis,
     Omne fuit Musae carmen inerme meae;
Nullaque, quae possit, scriptis tot milibus, extat
     Littera Nasonis sanguinolenta legi:
Nec quemquam nostri nisi me laesere libelli,

Up to this time, with twice five lustra now completed for me,
     all the song of my Muse has been unarmed;
and no letter exists, which could, amid so many thousands of writings,
     of Naso be read blood-stained:
nor have my little books injured anyone except me,

     Artificis periit cum caput Arte sua.
Unus (et hoc ipsum est iniuria magna) perennem
     Candoris titulum non sinit esse mei.
Quisquis is est (nam nomen adhuc utcumque tacebo),
     Cogit inassuetas sumere tela manus.

     the artist’s head perished by his own Art.
One (and this very thing is a great injury) does not allow
     the perennial title of my Candor to be.
Whoever he is (for the name I will for now somehow keep silent),
     he compels hands unaccustomed to take up weapons.

Ille relegatum gelidos aquilonis ad ortus
     Non sinit exilio delituisse meo;
Vulneraque inmitis requiem quaerentia vexat,
     Iactat et in toto nomina nostra foro;
Perpetuoque mihi sociatam foedere lecti

He, who has been relegated to the icy quarters of the North,
     does not allow me to have lain hidden in my exile;
and the ruthless one harasses wounds seeking repose,
     and he bandies our names through the whole forum;
and the one joined to me by a perpetual covenant of the marriage-bed

     Non patitur vivi funera flere viri.
Cumque ego quassa meae complectar membra carinae,
     Naufragii tabulas pugnat habere mei:
Et qui debuerat subitas extinguere flammas,
     Hic praedam medio raptor ab igne petit.

     He does not permit the funerals of a living man to be wept.
And when I clasp the shattered planks of my hull,
     he fights to have the boards of my shipwreck:
And he who ought to have extinguished the sudden flames,
     this plunderer seeks booty from the midst of the fire.

Nititur, ut profugae desint alimenta senectae:
     Heu! quanto est nostris dignior ipse malis!
Di melius! quorum longe mihi maximus ille est,
     Qui nostras inopes noluit esse vias.
Huic igitur meritas grates, ubicumque licebit,

He strives that sustenance not be lacking to my exiled old age:
     Alas! how much more worthy is he himself than our ills!
May the gods grant better! of whom by far to me the greatest is that man,
     who did not wish our ways to be impoverished.
To him therefore merited thanks, wherever it shall be permitted,

     Pro tam mansueto pectore semper agam.
Audiat hoc Pontus: faciet quoque forsitan idem,
     Terra sit ut propior testificanda mihi.
At tibi, calcasti qui me, violente, iacentem,
     Qua licet ei misero! debitus hostis ero.

     For so gentle a heart I shall always be grateful.
Let Pontus hear this: perhaps the land too will do the same,
     so that land nearer may be to testify on my behalf.
But as for you, violent one, who trampled me as I lay,
     So far as it is permitted to the wretch, I shall be a due enemy.

Desinet esse prius contrarius ignibus umor,
     Iunctaque cum luna lumina solis erunt;
Parsque eadem caeli zephyros emittet et euros,
     Et tepidus gelido flabit ab axe notus;
Et ver autumno, brumae miscebitur aestas,

Moisture will sooner cease to be contrary to fires,
     and the lights of the sun will be joined with the moon;
and the same part of the sky will send forth Zephyrs and Euri,
     and tepid Notus will blow from the icy axis;
and spring with autumn, summer will be mingled with winter,

Atque eadem regio vesper et ortus erit;
Et nova fraterno veniet concordia fumo,

And the same region will be west and east;
And a new concord will come from fraternal smoke,

Quem vetus accensa separat ira pyra:
Quam mihi sit tecum positis, quae sumpsimus, armis

Whom an ancient pyre, with anger inflamed, separates:
How great might there be for me with you, with the arms which we have assumed laid down

Gratia, commissis, improbe, rupta tuis.
Pax erit haec nobis, donec mihi vita manebit,

Goodwill, shameless man, is broken by your transgressions.
This will be our peace, so long as life remains to me,

     Cum pecore infirmo quae solet esse lupis.
Prima quidem coepto committam proelia versu,
     Non soleant quamvis hoc pede bella geri:
Utque petit primo plenum flaventis harenae
     Nondum calfacti militis hasta solum,
Sic ego te nondum ferro iaculabor acuto,
     Protinus invisum nec petet hasta caput;

     The kind that is wont to be for wolves with a feeble herd.
Indeed I will commit the first battles to the verse begun,
     although wars are not accustomed to be waged with this foot:
And as at first the spear of the not‑yet‑warmed soldier seeks
     the ground full of golden sand,
so I will not yet hurl at you with sharp iron,
     nor will the spear forthwith seek your hateful head;

Et neque nomen in hoc nec dicam facta libello,
     Teque brevi, qui sis, dissimulare sinam.
Postmodo, si perges, in te mihi liber iambus
     Tincta Lycambeo sanguine tela dabit.
Nunc quo Battiades inimicum devovet Ibin,

And neither the name in this little book will I set down, nor will I tell the deeds,
     and for a short time I will allow you to dissimulate who you are.
Afterward, if you persist, against you my iambic book
     will launch missiles dyed with Lycambean blood.
Now, as the Battiad devotes the hostile Ibis,

     Hoc ego devoveo teque tuosque modo.
Utque ille, historiis involvam carmina caecis:
     Non soleam quamvis hoc genus ipse sequi.
Illius ambages imitatus in Ibide dicar
     Oblitus moris iudiciique mei.

     This I devote, and you and yours, thus.
And as he, I will involve my songs in blind histories:
     Although I am not wont myself to follow this genre.
Having imitated his circumlocutions, I shall be said in the Ibis
     Forgetful of my custom and my judgment.

Et quoniam, qui sis, nondum quaerentibus edo,
     Ibidis interea tu quoque nomen habe;
Utque mei versus aliquantum noctis habebunt,
     Sic vitae series tota sit atra tuae.
Haec tibi natali facito, Ianique kalendis

And since, for those not yet asking who you are, I set forth,
     do you meanwhile also have the name of Ibis;
and as my verses will have somewhat of night,
     so let the whole series of your life be black.
See to it that these things be yours on your birthday, and on the Kalends of Janus

     Non mentituro quilibet ore legat.
Di maris et terrae, quique his meliora tenetis
     Inter diversos cum Iove regna polos,
Huc, precor, huc vestras omnes advertite mentes,
     Et sinite optatis pondus inesse meis:

     Let anyone read with a mouth that will not lie.
Gods of sea and land, and you who hold better realms than these
     among the diverse poles with Jove,
Hither, I pray, hither direct all your minds,
     And let my wishes have weight:

Ipsaque tu tellus, ipsum cum fluctibus aequor,
     Ipse meas aether accipe summe preces;
Sideraque et radiis circumdata solis imago,
     Lunaque, quae numquam quo prius orbe micas,
Noxque tenebrarum specie reverenda tuarum;

And you yourself, O earth, and the very sea with its waves,
     Do you yourself, highest Aether, receive my prayers;
And you stars and the image encircled with the sun’s rays,
     and the Moon, who never gleams in the same orb as before,
And Night, reverend in the aspect of your darkness;

     Quaeque ratum triplici pollice netis opus,
Quique per infernas horrendo murmure valles
     Inperiuratae laberis amnis aquae,
Quasque ferunt torto vittatis angue capillis
     Carceris obscuras ante sedere fores;

     And you who weave the ratified work with the triple thumb,
And you who with horrendous murmur glide through the infernal valleys,
     River of unforsworn water,
And those whom they say, with hair filleted with a twisted serpent,
     Sit before the dark doors of the Prison;

Vos quoque, plebs superum, Fauni Satyrique Laresque
     Fluminaque et nymphae semideumque genus:
Denique ab antiquo divi veteresque novique
     In nostrum cuncti tempus, adeste, chao,
Carmina dum capiti male fido dira canentur

You also, plebs of the gods above, Fauns and Satyrs and Lares
     and rivers and nymphs and the race of demigods:
Finally from antiquity, divinities both old and new,
     all, be present into our time, for our chaos,
while dire charms are chanted against the ill-trusted head

     Et peragent partes ira dolorque suas.
Adnuite optatis omnes ex ordine nostris,
     Et sit pars voti nulla caduca mei.
Quaeque precor, fiant: ut non mea dicta, sed illa
     Pasiphaes generi verba fuisse putet.

     And ire and dolor will perform their parts.
Assent to our wishes, all of you in order,
     and let no part of my vow lapse.
And whatever I pray, let them come to pass: so that one may think not my words, but those
     to have been Pasiphaë’s to her son-in-law.

Quasque ego transiero poenas, patiatur et illas;
     Plenius ingenio sit miser ille meo!
Neve minus noceant fictum execrantia nomen
     Vota, minus magnos commoveantve deos:
Illum ego devoveo, quem mens intellegit, Ibin,

And whatever punishments I shall pass through, let him suffer those as well;
     Let that man be more fully wretched by my genius!
And let not the vows that execrate a fictitious name harm less,
     nor let them move the great gods less:
I devote him whom my mind understands, Ibis,

     Qui se scit factis has meruisse preces.
Nulla mora est in me: peragam rata vota sacerdos.
     Quisquis ades sacris, ore favete, meis;
Quisquis ades sacris, lugubria dicite verba,
     Et fletu madidis Ibin adite genis:

     He who knows himself by his deeds to have deserved these prayers.
There is no delay in me: as priest I shall accomplish the ratified vows.
     Whoever attends the rites, with your mouth show favor to my rites;
Whoever attends the rites, speak mournful words,
     And with cheeks made wet with weeping, approach Ibis:

100

Ominibusque malis pedibusque occurrite laevis,
     Et nigrae vestes corpora vestra tegant!
Tu quoque, quid dubitas ferales sumere vittas?
     Iam stat, ut ipse vides, funeris ara tui.
Pompa parata tibi est: votis mora tristibus absit:

And go to meet him with evil omens and with bare feet,
     and let black garments cover your bodies!
You too—why do you hesitate to take on funeral fillets?
     Already, as you yourself see, the altar of your funeral stands.
The procession is prepared for you: let there be no delay for the mournful vows:

105

     Da iugulum cultris, hostia dira, meis.
Terra tibi fruges, amnis tibi deneget undas,
     Deneget afflatus ventus et aura suos.
Nec tibi sol calidus, nec sit tibi lucida Phoebe,
     Destituant oculos sidera clara tuos.

     Give your throat to my knives, dread victim.
May the earth deny you its fruits, may the river deny you its waves,
     May the wind and the breeze deny their breath.
Nor let the warm sun be yours, nor the shining Phoebe,
     Let the bright stars abandon your eyes.

110

Nec se Vulcanus nec se tibi praebeat aer,
     Nec tibi det tellus nec tibi pontus iter.
Exul, inops erres, alienaque limina lustres,
     Exiguumque petas ore tremente cibum.
Nec corpus querulo nec mens vacet aegra dolore,

Neither let Vulcan nor the air offer itself to you,
     Nor let the earth give you a path nor the sea a way.
As an exile, destitute, may you wander, and traverse alien thresholds,
     And seek exiguous food with a trembling mouth.
Nor let your body be free from querulous pain, nor your sick mind from sorrow,

115

     Noxque die gravior sit tibi, nocte dies.
Sisque miser semper, nec sis miserabilis ulli:
     Gaudeat adversis femina virque tuis.
Accedat lacrimis odium, dignusque putere,
     Qui, mala cum tuleris plurima, plura feras.

     And may the night be heavier to you than the day, and the day than the night.
Be ever wretched, and do not be pitiable to anyone:
     Let woman and man rejoice at your adversities.
Let hatred be added to your tears, and be thought worthy,
     that, when you have borne very many evils, you may bear more.

120

Sitque, quod est rarum, solito defecta favore
     Fortunae facies invidiosa tuae.
Causaque non desit, desit tibi copia mortis:
     Optatam fugiat vita coacta necem:
Luctatusque diu cruciatos spiritus artus

And—what is rare—let Fortune’s face, bereft of its accustomed favor,
     be invidious to you.
And let the cause not be lacking; let the means of death be lacking to you:
     let life, compelled, flee the death you have desired:
and, having struggled long, the spirit in your tortured limbs

125

     Deserat, et longa torqueat ante mora.
Evenient. dedit ipse mihi modo signa futuri
     Phoebus, et a laeva maesta volavit avis.
Certe ego, quae voveo, superos motura putabo,
     Speque tuae mortis, perfide, semper alar.

     Let it depart, and let it torture beforehand with a long delay.
They will come to pass. Phoebus himself just gave me signs of the future,
     and from the left a mournful bird flew.
Surely I will think that the things I vow will move the gods above,
     and I shall always be nourished by the hope of your death, perfidious one.

130

Et prius hanc animam, nimium tibi saepe petitam,
     Auferet illa dies, quae mihi sera venit,
Quam dolor hic umquam spatio evanescere possit,
     Leniat aut odium tempus et hora meum.
Pugnabunt arcu dum Thraces, Iazyges hasta,

And sooner this soul, too often sought by you,
     will that day, which comes late to me, carry off,
than that this pain could ever with lapse of time evanesce,
     or that time and the hour might soften my hatred.
So long as the Thracians will fight with the bow, the Iazyges with the spear,

135

     Dum tepidus Ganges, frigidus Hister erit;
Robora dum montes, dum mollia pabula campi,
     Dum Tiberis liquidas Tuscus habebit aquas,
Tecum bella geram; nec mors mihi finiet iras,
     Saeva sed in manes manibus arma dabit.                140
Tum quoque, cum fuero vacuas dilapsus in auras,
     Exsanguis mores oderit umbra tuos,
Tum quoque factorum veniam memor umbra tuorum,
     Insequar et vultus ossea forma tuos.
Sive ego, quod nolim, longis consumptus ab annis,

     So long as the Ganges is tepid, the Danube frigid;
so long as mountains have oaken strength, so long as fields have soft pasturage,
     so long as the Tuscan Tiber will have limpid waters,
I shall wage wars with you; nor will death finish my angers for me,
     but cruel Death will give weapons to my hands among the shades.                140
Then too, when I shall have slipped away, dissolved into empty air,
     my bloodless shade will hate your ways;
then too, mindful of your deeds, my shade will not grant pardon,
     and in a bony form I will pursue your face.
Or if I, which I would not wish, consumed by long years,

145

     Sive manu facta morte solutus ero:
Sive per inmensas iactabor naufragus undas,
     Nostraque longinquus viscera piscis edet:
Sive peregrinae carpent mea membra volucres:
     Sive meo tinguent sanguine rostra lupi:

     Whether I shall be released by a death wrought by my hand:
Whether I shall be tossed, shipwrecked, through immense waves,
     And some far-distant fish will eat my viscera:
Whether foreign birds will pluck my limbs:
     Or the muzzles of wolves will be tinged with my blood:

150

Sive aliquis dignatus erit subponere terrae
     Et dare plebeio corpus inane rogo:
Quidquid ero, Stygiis erumpere nitar ab oris,
     Et tendam gelidas ultor in ora manus.
Me vigilans cernes, tacitis ego noctis in umbris

Whether someone will deign to lay me beneath the earth,
     and to give the empty body to a plebeian pyre:
whatever I shall be, I will strive to erupt from the Stygian shores,
     and, as an avenger, I will stretch my gelid hands toward the faces.
Awake you will behold me; I, in the silent shadows of night

155

     Excutiam somnos visus adesse tuos.
Denique quidquid ages, ante os oculosque volabo
     Et querar, et nulla sede quietus eris.
Verbera saeva dabunt sonitum nexaeque colubrae,
     Conscia fumabunt semper ad ora faces.

     I will shake off slumbers; to your sight I will seem to be present.
Finally, whatever you do, I will fly before your face and eyes
     and I will complain, and you will be at rest in no seat.
Cruel scourges will give a sound, and the twined serpents,
     the witnessing torches will always reek at your face.

160

His vivus furiis agitabere, mortuus isdem,
     Et brevior poena vita futura tua est.
Nec tibi continget funus lacrimaeque tuorum;
     Indeploratum proiciere caput;
Carnificisque manu, populo plaudente, traheris,

Alive you will be driven by these Furies, dead by the same,
     And your life to come will be the briefer penalty.
Nor will a funeral and the tears of your own befall you;
     Your unwept head will be cast forth;
And by the executioner’s hand, with the people applauding, you will be dragged,

165

     Infixusque tuis ossibus uncus erit.
Ipsae te fugient, quae carpunt omnia, flammae;
     Respuet invisum iusta cadaver humus.
Unguibus et rostro crudus trahet ilia vultur
     Et scindent avidi perfida corda canes,                170
Deque tuo fiet++licet hac sis laude superbus++
     Insatiabilibus corpore rixa lupis.
In loca ab Elysiis diversa fugabere campis,
     Quasque tenet sedes noxia turba, coles.
Sisyphus est illic saxum volvensque petensque,

     And a hook will be fixed into your bones.
The flames themselves, which consume all things, will flee from you;
     The just earth will spit back your odious cadaver.
With talons and beak the cruel vulture will drag your entrails,
     And greedy dogs will rend your treacherous heart,                170
And from your own will be made++though you may be proud of this praise++
     a brawl over your body for insatiable wolves.
Into places far from the Elysian fields you will be driven,
     and you will dwell in the seats which a noxious throng holds.
Sisyphus is there, rolling and pursuing the stone,

175

Quique agitur rapidae vinctus ab orbe rotae,
Iugeribusque novem summus qui distat ab imo,

And he who is driven, bound to the circle of the rapid wheel,
And he whose top stands distant from the bottom by nine iugera,

181

Visceraque assiduae debita praebet avi.
Quaeque gerunt umeris perituras Belides undas,

And he presents the viscera owed to the assiduous bird.
And the Belids who bear upon their shoulders waters doomed to perish,

177

Exulis Aegypti, turba cruenta, nurus.
Poma pater Pelopis praesentia quaerit, et idem
Semper eget liquidis, semper abundat aquis.

The daughters-in-law of exiled Aegyptus, a bloody throng.
The father of Pelops seeks the present fruits, and likewise
he is always in want of liquids, always abounds in waters.

180

Hic tibi de Furiis scindet latus una flagello,

Here for you one of the Furies will rend your side with a scourge,

183

     Ut sceleris numeros confiteare tui:
Altera Tartareis sectos dabit anguibus artus:
     Tertia fumantes incoquet igne genas.
Noxia mille modis lacerabitur umbra, tuasque
     Aeacus in poenas ingeniosus erit.
In te transcribet veterum tormenta reorum:
     Sontibus antiquis causa quietis eris.

     So that you confess the full tally of your crime:
Another will give your limbs, cut to pieces, to the Tartarean serpents:
     A third will cook your smoking cheeks with fire.
Your noxious shade will be torn in a thousand ways, and your
     Aeacus will be ingenious at punishments.
Onto you he will transcribe the torments of the culprits of old:
     You will be the cause of rest to the ancient guilty.

190

Sisyphe, cui tradas revolubile pondus, habebis:
     Versabunt celeres nunc nova membra rotae:
Hic et erit, ramos frustra qui captet et undas:
     Hic inconsumpto viscere pascet aves.
Nec mortis poenas mors altera finiet huius,

You will have a Sisyphus, to whom you hand over the re-rolling weight:
     Swift wheels will now turn new limbs:
Here too there will be one who grasps at branches and waves in vain:
     Here one will feed the birds with an unconsumed entrail.
Nor will another death finish the penalties of his death,

195

     Horaque erit tantis ultima nulla malis.
Inde ego pauca canam, frondes ut siquis ab Ida
     Aut summam Libyco de mare carpat aquam.
Nam neque, quot flores Sicula nascantur in Hybla,
     Quotve ferat, dicam, terra Cilissa crocos,

     And there will be no ultimate hour for such great evils.
Then I will sing a few things, as if someone should pluck leaves from Ida,
     Or pluck the uppermost water from the Libyan sea.
For neither will I say how many flowers are born on Sicilian Hybla,
     Nor how many crocuses the Cilician land bears,

200

Nec cum tristis hiems Aquilonis inhorruit alis,
     Quam multa fiat grandine canus Athos;
Nec mala voce mea poterunt tua cuncta referri,
     Ora licet tribuas multiplicata mihi.
Tot tibi vae! misero venient talesque ruinae,

Nor, when sad winter has bristled with the wings of Aquilon,
     how hoary Athos becomes with much hail;
Nor will all your things be able to be retold by my ill voice,
     though you grant to me mouths multiplied.
So many woes for you! to the wretch such ruins will come,

205

     Ut cogi in lacrimas me quoque posse putem.
Illae me lacrimae facient sine fine beatum:
     Dulcior hic risu tunc mihi fletus erit.
Natus es infelix,++ita di voluere++nec ulla
     Commoda nascenti stella levisve fuit.

     So that I may think that I too can be compelled into tears.
Those tears will make me blessed without end:
     Then this weeping will be sweeter to me than laughter.
You were born unlucky,++thus the gods willed++nor was there any
     star favorable or gentle to you at your birth.

210

Non Venus affulsit, non illa Iuppiter hora,
     Lunaque non apto solque fuere loco,
Nec satis utiliter positos tibi praebuit ignes
     Quem peperit magno lucida Maia Iovi.
Te fera nec quicquam placidum spondentia Martis

Not Venus shone forth, nor Jupiter at that hour,
     and neither the Moon nor the Sun were in an apt place,
nor did he provide to you fires positioned sufficiently to advantage—
     whom bright Maia bore to great Jove.
As for you, the fierce influences of Mars, promising nothing placid,

215

     Sidera presserunt falciferique senis.
Lux quoque natalis, ne quid nisi triste videres,
     Turpis et inductis nubibus atra fuit.
Haec est, in fastis cui dat gravis Allia nomen,
     Quaeque dies Ibin, publica damna tulit.

     The stars of the sickle-bearing old man pressed down.
Even the natal light, that you might see nothing but sad things,
     was foul and black with clouds drawn over.
This is the one to which, in the calendars, grim Allia gives a name,
     and the day which, Ibis, brought public losses.

220

Qui simul impura matris prolapsus ab alvo
     Cinyphiam foedo corpore pressit humum,
Sedit in adverso nocturnus culmine bubo,
     Funereoque graves edidit ore sonos.
Protinus Eumenides lavere palustribus undis,

Who, as soon as he had slipped down from his mother's impure womb
     pressed the Cinyphian ground with his foul body,
A nocturnal owl sat on the opposite rooftop,
     and from his funereal mouth gave forth grave sounds.
Straightway the Eumenides bathed in marshy waves,

225

     Qua cava de Stygiis fluxerat unda vadis,
Pectoraque unxerunt Erebeae felle colubrae,
     Terque cruentatas increpuere manus.
Gutturaque imbuerunt infantia lacte canino:
     Hic primus pueri venit in ora cibus:

     Where the hollow wave had flowed from the Stygian shallows,
And the Erebean serpents anointed his breast with gall,
     And thrice they snapped their bloodstained hands.
And they imbued the infant throats with canine milk:
     Here the first food came to the boy’s mouth:

230

Perbibit inde suae rabiem nutricis alumnus,
     Latrat et in toto verba canina foro.
Membraque vinxerunt tinctis ferrugine pannis,
     A male deserto quos rapuere rogo:
Et, ne non fultum nuda tellure iaceret,

Then the foster-child drank down to the full the rage of his nurse,
     and he barks canine words throughout the whole forum.
And they bound his limbs with cloths tinctured with ferruginous dye,
     which they snatched from an ill-deserted pyre:
And, so that he might not lie unpropped on the naked earth,

235

     Molle super silices inposuere caput.
Iamque recessurae viridi de stipite factas
     Admorunt oculos usque sub ora faces.
Flebat, ut est fumis infans contactus amaris,
     De tribus est cum sic una locuta soror:

     They placed the soft head upon the flints.
And now, as they were about to withdraw, torches made from a green stock
     they brought right up to his eyes, beneath his face.
He wept, as an infant does when touched by bitter fumes,
     when one of the three sisters spoke thus:

240

'Tempus in inmensum lacrimas tibi movimus istas,
     Quae semper causa sufficiente cadent.'
Dixerat; at Clotho iussit promissa valere,
     Nevit et infesta stamina pulla manu;
Et, ne longa suo praesagia diceret ore,

'For time without measure we have set these tears in motion for you,
     which will always fall, the cause being sufficient.'
She had spoken; but Clotho ordered the promises to stand,
     and spun the baleful threads with her dusky hand;
and, lest she speak long presages with her own mouth,

245

     'Fata canet vates qui tua,' dixit, 'erit.'
Ille ego sum vates: ex me tua vulnera disces,
     Dent modo di vires in mea verba suas;
Carminibusque meis accedent pondera rerum,
     Quae rata per luctus experiere tuos.

     'There will be a seer who will sing your fates,' she said, 'there will be.'
I am that seer: from me you will learn your wounds,
     only let the gods give their powers into my words;
and to my songs the weights of things will accede,
     which, ratified, you will experience through your griefs.

250

Neve sine exemplis aevi cruciere prioris,
     Sint tua Troianis non leviora malis,
Quantaque clavigeri Poeantius Herculis heres,
     Tanta venenato vulnera crure geras.
Nec levius doleas, quam qui bibit ubera cervae,

Nor be tormented without examples of a prior age,
     let your evils be not lighter than the Trojan evils,
and as great as the Poeantian heir of club-bearing Hercules,
     so great wounds may you bear in a venom-poisoned leg.
nor may you suffer less than he who drank at a hind’s udders,

255

     Armatique tulit vulnus, inermis opem;
Quique ab equo praeceps in Aleia decidit arva,
     Exitio facies cui sua paene fuit.
Id quod Amyntorides videas, trepidumque ministro
     Praetemptes baculo luminis orbus iter.

     And he, armed, bore a wound; unarmed, [he obtained] aid;
and he who, headlong, fell from his horse onto the Aleian fields,
     whose very face was almost his destruction.
May you see that which the son of Amyntor saw, and, in fear, with an attendant
     may you feel out with a staff your path, bereft of light.

260

Nec plus aspicias quam quem sua filia rexit,
     Expertus scelus est cuius uterque parens:
Qualis erat, postquam est iudex de lite iocosa
     Sumptus, Apollinea clarus in arte senex:
Qualis et ille fuit, quo praecipiente columba

Nor look upon more than him whom his own daughter guided,
     whose each parent experienced a crime:
such as he was, after he was taken as judge of a jocose dispute,
     an old man famous in the Apollinean art:
such also was that man, at whose prompting the dove

265

     Est data Palladiae praevia duxque rati:
Quique oculis caruit, per quos male viderat aurum,
     Inferias nato quos dedit orba parens:
Pastor ut Aetnaeus, cui casus ante futuros
     Telemus Eurymides vaticinatus erat:

     A forerunning guide and leader was given to the Palladian ship:
And he who was bereft of the eyes, with which he had ill beheld the gold,
     the eyes which the bereft mother gave as funeral offerings to her son:
As the Aetnaean shepherd, to whom the coming mishaps beforehand
     Telemus, son of Eurymus, had prophesied:

270

Ut duo Phinidae, quibus idem lumen ademit,
     Qui dedit: ut Thamyrae Demodocique caput
Sic aliquis tua membra secet, Saturnus ut illas
     Subsecuit partes, unde creatus erat.
Nec tibi sit melior tumidis Neptunus in undis,

As the two Phinidae, from whom the same one who gave the light took it away,
     as the head of Thamyras and of Demodocus:
so may someone cut your limbs, as Saturn cut off those parts
     from which he had been begotten.
Nor may Neptune be better for you in the swollen waves,

275

     Quam cui sunt subitae frater et uxor aves;
Sollertique viro, lacerae quem fracta tenentem
     Membra ratis Semeles est miserata soror.
Vel tua, ne poenae genus hoc cognoverit unus,
     Viscera diversis scissa ferantur equis:                280
Vel quae, qui redimi Romano turpe putavit,
     A duce Puniceo pertulit, ipse feras.
Nec tibi subsidio praesens sit numen, ut illi,
     Cui nihil Hercei profuit ara Iovis.
Utque dedit saltus a summa Thessalus Ossa,

     than he for whom brother and wife became sudden birds;
and like the skillful man, whom, as he clung while the broken raft held his torn
     limbs, Semele’s sister pitied.
Or let your own viscera, so that not one alone may know this kind of penalty,
     be borne, cleft, by different horses:                280
or those which he—who thought it shameful to be ransomed by a Roman—
     endured from a Punic leader, may you yourself bear.
Nor let a present numen be aid to you, as to him
     to whom the altar of Jupiter Herceus profited nothing.
And as Thessalian Ossa gave leaps from its summit,

285

     Tu quoque saxoso praecipitere iugo.
Aut velut Eurylochi, qui sceptrum cepit ab illo,
     Sint artus avidis anguibus esca tui.
Vel tua maturet, sicut Minoia fata,
     Per caput infusae fervidus umor aquae.

     You too be cast headlong from a rocky ridge.
Or, as with Eurylochus, who took the scepter from him,
     let your limbs be food for ravenous serpents.
Or let yours be hastened, like the Minoian fates,
     by the scalding moisture of water poured over your head.

290

[Utque parum mitis, sed non impune, Prometheus,
     Aerias volucres sanguine fixus alas.]
Aut ut Erecthides, magno ter ab Hercule victus,
     Caesus in inmensum proiciare fretum.
Aut ut Amyntiaden, turpi dilectus amore

[And as, not very mild, yet not with impunity, Prometheus,
     pinning the aerial birds’ wings with blood.]
Or as the Erechtheid, thrice conquered by great Hercules,
     cut down, to be cast forth into the immense strait.
Or as the Amyntiad, loved with shameful love

295

     Oderit, et saevo vulneret ense puer.
Nec tibi fida magis misceri pocula possint,
     Quam qui cornigero de Iove natus erat.
More vel intereas capti suspensus Achaei,
     Qui miser aurifera teste pependit aqua.                300
Aut ut Achilliden, cognato nomine clarum,
     Opprimat hostili tegula iacta manu.
Nec tua quam Pyrrhi felicius ossa quiescant,
     Sparsa per Ambracias quae iacuere vias.
Nataque ut Aeacidae iaculis moriaris adactis;

     let a boy hate you, and wound you with a savage sword.
nor may more faithful cups be mixed for you
     than for him who was born from horn-bearing Jove.
or else may you perish in the manner of the captured Achaean, suspended,
     who, wretched, hung by a gold-bearing water-jar.                300
or as the son of Achilles, famous with a kindred name,
     let a roof-tile cast by an enemy hand crush him.
nor let your bones rest more happily than Pyrrhus’s,
     which lay scattered along the Ambracian roads.
and, a daughter, may you die, with the javelins of the Aeacid driven in;

305

     Non licet hoc Cereri dissimulare sacrum.
Utque nepos dicti nostro modo carmine regis,
     Cantharidum sucos dante parente bibas.
Aut pia te caeso dicatur adultera, sicut
     Qua cecidit Leucon vindice, dicta pia est.

     It is not permitted for Ceres to dissimulate this sacred rite.
And as the grandson of the aforesaid king, in our song just now,
     may you drink the juices of cantharides, a parent giving them.
Or let you be called a pious adulteress, with one having been slain, just as
     she by whose avenging hand Leucon fell has been called pious.

310

Inque pyram tecum carissima corpora mittas,
     Quem finem vitae Sardanapallus habet.
Utque Iovis Libyci templum violare parantes,
     Acta noto vultus condat harena tuos.
Utque necatorum Darei fraude secundi,

And into the pyre send, along with yourself, the dearest bodies,
     such an end of life as Sardanapalus has.
And as those preparing to violate the temple of Libyan Jove,
     may the sand of the well-known shore bury your faces.
And as by the treachery of the slayers of Darius the Second,

315

     Sic tua subsidens devoret ora cinis.
Aut ut olivifera quondam Sicyone profecto,
     Sit frigus mortis causa famesque tuae.
Aut ut Atarnites, insutus pelle iuvenci
     Turpiter ad dominum praeda ferare tuum.

     Thus let the ash, sinking down, devour your face.
Or as, once, having set out from olive-bearing Sicyon,
     let cold and hunger be the cause of your death.
Or as the Atarnite, sewn up in the hide of a young bull,
     may you be shamefully borne as booty to your master.

320

Inque tuo thalamo ritu iugulere Pheraei,
     Qui datus est leto coniugis ense suae,
Quosque putas fidos, ut Larisaeus Aleuas
     Vulnere non fidos experiare tuo.
Utque Milo, sub quo cruciata est Pisa tyranno,

And in your bedchamber may you be jugulated in the rite of the Pheraean,
     who was given to death by his wife’s sword,
and those whom you think faithful, like the Larisaean Aleuas,
     may you by your wound discover to be unfaithful.
And as Milo, under whose tyranny Pisa was cruciated,

325

     Vivus in occultas praecipiteris aquas.
Quaeque in Adimantum Phyllesia regna tenentem
     A Iove venerunt, te quoque tela petant.
Aut ut Amastriacis quondam Lenaeus ab oris,
     Nudus Achillea destituaris humo.

     Alive, you may be precipitated into hidden waters.
And let the missiles which came from Jove against Adimantus holding the Phyllesian realms
     seek you as well.
Or as once Lenaeus from the Amastrian shores,
     naked may you be left destitute upon Achillean ground.

330

Utque vel Eurydamas ter circum busta Thrasylli
     Est Larisaeis raptus ab hoste rotis,
Vel qui, quae fuerat tutatus moenia saepe,
     Corpore lustravit non diuturna suo,
Utque novum passa genus Hippomeneide poenae

And just as either Eurydamas, three times around the pyres of Thrasyllus,
     was dragged by the Larisaean enemy chariot-wheels,
or he who had often protected the walls which had been,
     circled them with his not long-lasting body,
and as she who suffered a new kind of Hippomenidean punishment

335

     Tractus in Actaea fertur adulter humo,
Sic, ubi vita tuos invisa reliquerit artus,
     Ultores rapiant turpe cadaver equi.
Viscera sic aliquis scopulus tua figat, ut olim
     Fixa sub Euboico Graia fuere sinu;

     It is said the adulterer was dragged on Actaean soil,
Thus, when hateful life has left your limbs,
     let avenging horses snatch your shameful corpse.
Thus may some crag transfix your entrails, as once
     they were fixed beneath the Euboean bay in Greek waters;

340

Utque ferox periit et fulmine et aequore raptor,
     Sic te mersuras adiuvet ignis aquas.
Mens quoque sic furiis vecors agitetur, ut illi,
     Unum qui toto corpore vulnus habet;
Utque Dryantiadae Rhodopeia regna tenenti,

And as the fierce ravisher perished both by thunderbolt and by the sea,
     so may fire aid the waters destined to drown you.
Let your mind likewise be driven, crazed, by the Furies, like his,
     who has one wound in his whole body;
And as with the Dryantian, holding the Rhodopeian realms,

345

     In gemino dispar cui pede cultus erat,
Ut fuit Oetaeo quondam generoque draconum
     Tisamenique patri Calliroesque viro.
Nec tibi contingat matrona pudicior illa,
     Qua potuit Tydeus erubuisse nuru:

     for whom on the twin foot the attire was unequal,
as it once was to the Oetaean and to the son-in-law of dragons
     and to Tisamenus’s father and to Callirhoe’s husband.
Nor may there fall to you a matron more modest than that one,
     before whom Tydeus could have blushed before his daughter-in-law:

350

Quaeque sui Venerem iunxit cum fratre mariti,
     Locris in ancillae dissimulata nece.
Tam quoque, di faciant, possis gaudere fideli
     Coniuge, quam Talai Tyndareique gener:
Quaeque parare suis letum patruelibus ausae

And she who yoked her own Venus with her husband’s brother,
     in Locri, with the maidservant’s murder concealed.
So too—may the gods grant it—you may rejoice in a faithful
     spouse, as did the son-in-law of Talaus and the son-in-law of Tyndareus:
and those who dared to prepare doom for their own paternal cousins

355

     Belides assidua colla premuntur aqua.
Byblidos et Canaces, sicut facit, ardeat igne,
     Nec nisi per crimen sit tibi fida soror.
Filia si fuerit, sit quod Pelopea Thyestae,
     Myrrha suo patri, Nyctimeneque suo.

     The Belides’ necks are pressed by assiduous water.
Let Byblis and Canace, as she does, burn with fire,
     nor let a sister be faithful to you except through crime.
If there shall be a daughter, let her be what Pelopia was to Thyestes,
     Myrrha to her father, and Nyctimene to her own.

360

Neve magis pia sit capitique parentis amica,
     Quam sua vel Pterelae, vel tibi, Nise, fuit:
Infamemque locum sceleris quae nomine fecit,
     Pressit et inductis membra paterna rotis.
Ut iuvenes pereas, quorum fastigia vultus

Nor let her be more pious and a friend to a parent's head,
     than she was to her own, or to Pterelaus, or to you, Nisus:
and she who made a place infamous by the name of her crime,
     and pressed her paternal limbs with wheels driven over.
So that you may perish as young men, whose brows

365

     Membraque Pisaeae sustinuere foris:
Ut qui perfusam miserorum saepe procorum
     Ipse suo melius sanguine tinxit humum:
Proditor ut saevi periit auriga tyranni,
     Qui nova Myrtoae nomina fecit aquae:

     and the Pisaean doors sustained the limbs:
As he who had often drenched with the blood of wretched suitors
     himself more fittingly dyed the ground with his own blood:
The traitor charioteer of the savage tyrant perished,
     who gave a new name to the Myrtoan water:

370

Ut qui velocem frustra petiere puellam,
     Dum facta est pomis tardior illa tribus:
Ut qui tecta novi formam celantia monstri
     Intrarunt caecae non redeunda domus:
Ut quorum Aeacides misit violentus in altum

As those who in vain sought the swift maiden,
     while she became slower by the three apples:
As those who entered the roofs concealing the form of a new monster,
     the blind house not to be returned from:
As those whom the Aeacid, violent, sent into the deep

375

     Corpora cum senis altera sena rogum:
Ut quos, obscuri victos ambagibus oris,
     Legimus infandae Sphinga dedisse neci:
Ut qui Bistoniae templo cecidere Minervae,
     Propter quos acies nunc quoque tecta deae est:

     Bodies, six, and another six, to the pyre:
As those whom, conquered by the obscure circumlocutions of her mouth,
     we read to have been given over to the unspeakable Sphinx for slaughter:
     As those who fell at the temple of Bistonian Minerva,
     because of whom even now the edge of the goddess is covered:

380

Ut qui Threicii quondam praesepia regis
     Fecerunt dapibus sanguinolenta suis:
Therodamanteos ut qui sensere leones,
     Quique Thoanteae Taurica sacra deae:
Ut quos Scylla vorax Scyllaeque adversa Charybdis

As those who once made the stalls of the Thracian king
     blood-stained with their own banquets:
as those who felt the Therodamantean lions,
     and those who felt the Tauric rites of the Thoantian goddess:
as those whom the voracious Scylla and Charybdis opposite to Scylla

385

     Dulichiae pavidos eripuere rati:
Ut quos demisit vastam Polyphemus in alvum:
     Ut Laestrygonias qui subiere manus:
Ut quos dux Poenus mersit putealibus undis
     Et iacto canas pulvere fecit aquas:

     The Dulichian rafts snatched away the fearful:
As those whom Polyphemus sent down into his vast belly:
     As those who underwent the Laestrygonian hands:
As those whom the Punic leader plunged beneath well-waters
     and, by casting dust, made the waters hoary:

390

Sex bis ut Icaridos famulae periere procique,
     Inque caput domini qui dabat arma procis:
Ut iacet Aonio luctator ab hospite fusus,
     Qui, mirum, victor, cum cecidisset, erat:
Ut quos Antaei fortes pressere lacerti:

How twice six maidservants of the Icarian lady and the suitors perished,
     and upon the master’s head [fell] the man who was giving arms to the suitors:
How the wrestler lies, laid low by the Aonian guest,
     who, marvel, was the victor when he had fallen:
How those whom the strong arms of Antaeus pressed down:

395

     Quosque ferae morti Lemnia turba dedit:
Ut qui post longum, sacri monstrator iniqui,
     Elicuit pluvias victima caesus aquas:
Frater ut Antaei, quo sanguine debuit, aras
     Tinxit, et exemplis occidit ipse suis:

     And those whom the Lemnian throng gave to savage death:
As he who, after a long time, the demonstrator of an iniquitous rite,
     elicited the rainy waters, slain as a victim:
As Antaeus’s brother, with the blood he owed, the altars
     stained, and by his own examples he himself perished:

400

Ut qui terribiles pro gramen habentibus herbis
     Impius humano viscere pavit equos:
Ut duo diversis sub eodem vindice caesi
     Vulneribus, Nessus Dexamenique gener:
Ut pronepos, Saturne, tuus, quem reddere vitam

As he who, for his terrible horses having herbs in place of grass,     impiously fed the horses on human viscera:
As the two felled by different wounds beneath the same avenger,     Nessus and the son-in-law of Dexamenus:
As your great-grandson, Saturn, whom, for restoring life

405

     Urbe Coronides vidit ab ipse sua:
Ut Sinis et Sciron et cum Polypemone natus:
     Quique homo parte sui, parte iuvencus erat:
Quique trabes pressas ab humo mittebat in auras,
     Aequoris aspiciens huius et huius aquas:

     The Coronides saw from his own city:
As Sinis and Sciron and the son of Polypemon:
     And he who was part man, part young bull:
He who would send beams, pressed from the ground, into the breezes,
     Looking upon the waters of this sea and of that:

410

Quaeque Ceres laeto vidit pereuntia vultu
     Corpora Thesea Cercyonea manu.
Haec tibi, quem meritis precibus mea devovet ira,
     Evenient, aut his non leviora malis.
Qualis Achaemenidis, Sicula desertus in Aetna

And the Thesean bodies which Ceres, with a glad visage, saw perishing
     by the Cercyonian hand.
These things will befall you, whom my wrath, with well-merited prayers, devotes,
     or evils not lighter than these.
Like that of Achaemenides, deserted on Sicilian Etna

415

     Troica cum vidit vela venire, fuit,
Qualis erat nec non fortuna binominis Iri,
     Quique tenent pontem, spe tibi maior erit.
Filius et Cereris frustra tibi semper ametur,
     Destituatque tuas usque petitus opes:

     when he saw Trojan sails coming, he was,
Such as was, and likewise the fortune of double-named Irus,
     And in those who hold the bridge, your hope will be greater.
And let the son of Ceres always be loved by you in vain,
     and, ever sought, let him abandon your resources:

420

Utque per alternos unda labente recursus
     Subtrahitur presso mollis harena pedi,
Sic tua nescio qua semper fortuna liquescat,
     Lapsaque per medias effluat usque manus.
Utque pater solitae varias mutare figuras,

And as through alternating retreats the wave, gliding, is withdrawn,
     the soft sand from the pressed foot,
so may your fortune somehow always liquefy,
     and, having slipped, flow away right through your very hands.
And as the father accustomed to change various figures,

425

     Plenus inextincta conficiare fame;
Nec dapis humanae tibi sint fastidia; quaque
     Parte potes, Tydeus temporis huius eris.
Atque aliquid facies, a vespere Solis ad ortus
     Cur externati rursus agantur equi;

     Full of inextinguishable hunger, you will be consumed;
Nor let there be to you fastidiousness at human fare; and in whatever
     Part you can, you will be a Tydeus of this time.
And you will also do something, from the Sun’s evening to his rising
     Why the horses, maddened, are driven again;

430

Foeda Lycaoniae repetes convivia mensae,
     Temptabisque cibi fallere fraude Iovem;
Teque aliquis posito temptet vim numinis opto,
     Tantalides tu sis, tu Teleique puer.
Et tua sic latos spargantur membra per agros,

You will repeat the foul banquets of Lycaon’s table,
     and you will attempt to deceive Jove by the fraud of food;
and I wish that someone, setting aside the awe of the divinity, may test its force upon you,
     may you be a Tantalid, you the boy of Teleus.
And thus may your limbs be scattered over the broad fields,

435

     Tamquam quae patrias detinuere vias.
Aere Perilleo veros imitere iuvencos,
     Ad formam tauri conveniente sono.
Utque ferox Phalaris, lingua prius ense resecta
     More bovis Paphio clausus in aere gemas.

     as those who blocked the fatherland’s roads.
In Perillean bronze imitate true young bulls,
     with a sound agreeing with the bull’s form.
And as ferocious Phalaris, your tongue first resected by the sword,
     may you groan, shut in Paphian bronze, in the manner of a bull.

440

Dumque redire voles aevi melioris in annos,
     Ut vetus Admeti decipiare socer.
Aut eques in medii mergare voragine caeni,
     Dummodo sint fati nomina nulla tui.
Atque utinam pereas, veluti de dentibus orti

And while you will wish to return into the years of a better age,
     so that, like the old father-in-law of Admetus, you may be deceived.
Or as a rider you may be submerged in the vortex of the mid-mire,
     provided that there be no names of your fate.
And would that you perish, as those sprung from the teeth

445

     Sidonia iactis Graia per arva manu.
Et quae Pitthides fecit de fratre Medusae,
     Eveniant capiti vota sinistra tuo:
Et quibus exiguo volucris devota libello est,
     Corpora proiecta quae sua purgat aqua.

     by a Sidonian hand cast through Greek fields.
And what the Pittheid did concerning Medusa’s brother,
     May ill-omened vows befall your head:
     And by which, in a slight booklet, the bird is devoted,
     Bodies cast forth which it purges with its own water.

450

Vulnera totque feras quot dicitur ille tulisse,
     Cuius ab inferiis culter abesse solet.
Attonitusque seces, ut quos Cybeleia mater
     Incitat, ad Phrygios vilia membra modos;
Deque viro fias nec femina nec vir, ut Attis,

May you bear wounds and as many wild beasts as that one is said to have endured,
     whose knife is wont to be absent from funeral rites.
And, thunderstruck, may you cut yourself, like those whom the Cybeleian mother
     incites, vile limbs to Phrygian measures;
And from a man may you become neither female nor male, like Attis,

455

     Et quatias molli tympana rauca manu.
Inque pecus subito Magnae vertare Parentis,
     Victor ut est celeri victaque versa pede.
Solaque Limone poenam ne senserit illam,
     Et tua dente fero viscera carpat equus.

     And may you shake the hoarse tympana with a soft hand.
And be suddenly turned into the herd of the Great Parent,
     as the victor is with swift foot and the vanquished with foot reversed.
And let not Limone alone have felt that penalty,
     and may a horse with fierce tooth tear your viscera.

460

Aut, ut Cassandreus domino non mitior illo,
     Saucius ingesta contumuleris humo.
Aut ut Abantiades, aut ut Cycneius heros,
     Clausus in aequoreas praecipiteris aquas.
Victima vel Phoebo sacras macteris ad aras,

Or, as the Cassandraean, no gentler to his master than that one,
     wounded, may you be buried with earth cast upon you.
Or as the Abantiades, or as the Cycneian hero,
     shut in, may you be headlong precipitated into the sea-waters.
Or as a victim, may you be immolated to Phoebus at the sacred altars,

465

     Quam tulit a saevo Theudotus hoste necem.
Aut te devoveat certis Abdera diebus,
     Saxaque devotum grandine plura petant.
Aut Iovis infesti telo feriare trisulco,
     Ut satus Hipponoo, Dexitheaeque pater,

     Such a death as Theudotus bore from a savage foe.
Or let Abdera devote you on appointed days,
     and let more stones, like hail, assail the devoted one.
Or let the three-forked missile of hostile Jove strike you,
     as the one begotten of Hipponous, and the father of Dexithea,

470

Ut soror Autonoes, ut cui matertera Maia,
     Ut temere optatos qui male rexit equos;
Ut ferus Aeolides, ut sanguine natus eodem,
     Quo genita est liquidis quae caret Arctos aquis,
Ut Macelo rapidis icta est cum coniuge flammis,

As Autonoe’s sister, as he whose maternal aunt is Maia,
     as the one who rashly poorly drove the desired horses;
as the savage Aeolid, as he born of the same blood
     by which Arctos, who lacks the liquid waters, was begotten,
as Macelo was struck with her husband by rapid flames,

475

     Sic, precor, aetherii vindicis igne cadas.
Praedaque sis illis, quibus est Latonia Delos
     Ante diem rapto non adeunda Thaso:
Quique verecundae speculantem labra Dianae,
     Quique Crotopiaden diripuere Linum.

     Thus, I pray, may you fall by the fire of the aetherial avenger.
And be prey to those for whom Latonian Delos
     is not to be approached before the day, with Thasus snatched:
and to those who tore apart the watcher of modest Diana’s lips,
     and to those who tore apart Linus, the Crotopiad.

480

Neve venenato levius feriaris ab angue,
     Quam senis Oeagri Calliopesque nurus:
Quam puer Hypsipyles, quam qui cava primus acuta
     Cuspide suspecti robora fixit equi.
Neve gradus adeas Elpenore cautius altos,

Nor may you be struck more lightly by a venomous serpent,
     than the daughter-in-law of old Oeagrus and of Calliope;
than the boy of Hypsipyle, than he who first with a sharp-pointed
     spear fixed the hollow timbers of the suspect horse.
Nor may you approach high steps more cautiously than Elpenor,

485

     Vimque feras vini quo tulit ille modo.
Tamque cadas domitus, quam quisquis ad arma vocantem
     Iuvit inhumanum Thiodamanta Dryops:
Quam ferus ipse suo periit mactatus in antro
     Proditus inclusae Cacus ab ore bovis:

And may you suffer the force of wine, in the manner in which he bore it just now.
So too may you fall subdued, like Dryops, whoever aided the inhuman Thiodamas calling to arms:
as the savage Cacus himself perished, slaughtered in his own cavern, betrayed by the mouth of an enclosed cow:

490

Quam qui dona tulit Nesseo tincta veneno,
     Euboicasque suo sanguine tinxit aquas.
Vel de praecipiti venias in Tartara saxo,
     Ut qui Socraticum de nece legit opus;
Ut qui Theseae fallacia vela carinae

As he who brought gifts tinctured with Nessus’s poison,
     and dyed the Euboean waters with his own blood.
Or come from a precipitous rock into Tartarus,
     like him who read the Socratic work on death;
like him who, at the fallacious sails of Theseus’s ship

495

     Vidit, ut Iliaca missus ab arce puer,
Ut teneri nutrix, eadem matertera, Bacchi,
     Ut cui causa necis serra reperta fuit;
Livida se scopulis ut virgo misit ab altis,
     Dixerat invicto quae mala verba deo.

     He saw, how the boy sent from the Iliac citadel,
How the nurse—and likewise the maternal aunt—of tender Bacchus,
     How the one for whom the discovered saw was the cause of death;
Livid, how the maiden hurled herself from high crags,
     she who had spoken evil words to the unconquered god.

500

Feta tibi occurrat patrio popularis in arvo,
     Sitque Phalaeceae causa leaena necis.
Quique Lycurgiden letavit, et arbore natum,
     Idmonaque audacem, te quoque rumpat aper.
Isque vel exanimis faciat tibi vulnus, ut illi,

May a with-young fellow-country lioness meet you in your ancestral field,
     and let a lioness be the cause of Phalaecus’s death.
And he who slew the son of Lycurgus, and the one born from a tree,
     and bold Idmon—let the boar tear you as well.
And let he even lifeless make a wound for you, as for that man,

505

     Ora super fixi quem cecidere suis.
Sive idem, simili pinus quem morte peremit,
     Phryx ac venator sis Berecyntiades.
Si tua contigerit Minoas puppis harenas,
     Te Corcyraeum Cressia turba putet.                510
Lapsuramque domum subeas, ut sanguis Aleuae,
     Stella Leoprepidae cum fuit aequa Iovis.
Utque vel Evenus, torrenti flumine mersus
     Nomina des rapidae, vel Tiberinus, aquae.
Astacidaeque modo decisa cadavere trunco,

     and let that one, even lifeless, make a wound for you, as for him, who, pierced by his own [weapons], fell upon his face.
Or else the same, whom a pine slew by a similar death—may you be a Phrygian and hunter, a Berecyntiades.
     If your ship shall reach the Minoan sands,
     let the Cretan crowd take you for a Corcyraean.                510
And may you go under a house about to collapse, as did the blood of Aleuas,
     when the star of Leoprepides was equal to Jove.
And as Evenus, submerged by a torrential river,
     may you give your name to the swift water, or as Tiberinus.
And just as that of the Astacides, lately cut off from the corpse’s trunk,

515

     Digna feris, hominis sit caput esca tuum,
Quodque ferunt Brotean fecisse cupidine mortis,
     Des tua succensae membra cremanda pyrae.
Inclususque necem cavea patiaris, ut ille
     Non profecturae conditor historiae.

     Worthy of beasts, let a man’s head be your food,
     and what they report Broteas to have done by desire of death,
     give your limbs to a kindled pyre to be cremated.
     And, shut in a cage, do not suffer death, as that
     founder of a history not destined to go forth.

520

Utque repertori nocuit pugnacis iambi,
     Sic sit in exitium lingua proterva tuum.
Utque parum stabili qui carmine laesit Athenin,
     Invisus pereas deficiente cibo.
Utque lyrae vates fertur periisse severae,

And as it harmed the inventor of the pugnacious iamb,
     so may your insolent tongue be for your destruction.
And as he who with a not very stable song injured Athena,
     hated, may you perish with food failing.
And as the bard of the severe lyre is said to have perished,

525

     Causa sit exitii dextera laesa tui.
Utque Agamemnonio vulnus dedit anguis Orestae,
     Tu quoque de morsu virus habente cadas.
Sit tibi coniugii nox prima novissima vitae:
     Eupolis hoc periit et nova nupta modo.

     Let an injured right hand be the cause of your ruin.
And as a serpent gave a wound to Agamemnonian Orestes,
     May you, too, fall from a bite that holds venom.
Let the first night of marriage be for you the very last of life:
     By this perished Eupolis, and a new bride just now.

530

Utque coturnatum periisse Lycophrona narrant,
     Haereat in fibris fixa sagitta tuis.
Aut lacer in silva manibus spargare tuorum,
     Sparsus ut est Thebis angue creatus avo.
Perque feros montes tauro rapiente traharis,

And as they narrate that buskined Lycophron perished,
     may a fixed arrow stick fast in your fibers.
Or, torn in the forest, be scattered by the hands of your own,
     as at Thebes was scattered he begotten of a serpent grandsire.
And through savage mountains may you be dragged by a seizing bull,

535

     Ut tracta est coniunx imperiosa Lyci.
Quodque suae passa est paelex invita sororis,
     Excidat ante pedes lingua resecta tuos.
Conditor ut tardae, laesus cognomine, Myrrhae,
     Urbis in innumeris inveniare locis.

     As the imperious wife of Lycus was dragged.
And what the concubine of her own sister suffered, unwilling,
     may a tongue, cut off, fall before your feet.
As the founder of sluggish Myrrha, harmed in his cognomen,
     may you be found in countless places of the city.

540

Inque tuis opifex, vati quod fecit Achaeo,
     Noxia luminibus spicula condat apis.
Fixus et in duris carparis viscera saxis,
     Ut cui Pyrrha sui filia fratris erat.
Ut puer Harpagides referas exempla Thyestae,

And into your eyes may the worker-bee, as she did to the Achaean bard, bury stings harmful to the eyes.
And, fixed upon hard rocks, may your viscera be torn,
like him to whom Pyrrha was the daughter of his own brother.
So that, as the Harpagid boy, you may recall the examples of Thyestes,

545

     Inque tui caesus viscera patris eas.
Trunca geras saevo mutilatis partibus ense,
     Qualia Mamertae membra fuisse ferunt.
Utve Syracosio praestricta fauce poetae,
     Sic animae laqueo sit via clausa tuae.                550
Nudave derepta pateant tua viscera pelle,
     Ut Phrygium cuius nomina flumen habet.
Saxificae videas infelix ora Medusae,
     Cephenum multos quae dedit una neci.
Potniadum morsus subeas, ut Glaucus, equarum,

     and, cut down, may you go into the entrails of your own father.
May you bear a truncated frame, your parts mutilated by a savage sword,
     such as they say the limbs of a Mamertine were.
Or as the throat of the Syracusan poet was pinched shut,
     so may the passage of your soul be closed by a noose.                550
Or, laid bare with the skin torn off, may your entrails lie open,
     as of him whose name a Phrygian river bears.
Unlucky one, may you see the face of stone-making Medusa,
     who alone delivered many of the Cephenian folk to death.
May you undergo the bites of the Potnian mares, like Glaucus,

555

     Inque maris salias, Glaucus ut alter, aquas.
Utque duobus idem dictis modo nomen habenti,
     Praefocent animae Cnosia mella viam.
Sollicitoque bibas, Anyti doctissimus olim
     Imperturbato quod bibit ore reus.

     And into the waters of the sea may you leap, as another Glaucus.
And as to the one who just now has the same name in two tales,
     let Cnossian honeys choke the passage of your breath.
And in anxiety may you drink what the most learned defendant of Anytus once
     drank with an unperturbed mouth.

560

Nec tibi, siquid amas, felicius Haemone cedat:
     Utque sua Macareus, sic potiare tua.
Vel videas quod, iam cum flammae cuncta tenerent,
     Hectoreus patria vidit ab arce puer.
Sanguine probra luas, ut avo genitore creatus,

Nor, if you love anything, let it turn out more felicitous for you than for Haemon:
     And as Macareus with his own, so may you obtain your own.
Or may you see what, when the flames already held all things,
     the Hectorean boy saw from his father’s citadel.
May you expiate your disgraces with blood, as begotten with your grandsire as begetter,

565

     Per facinus soror est cui sua facta parens.
Ossibus inque tuis teli genus haereat illud,
     Traditur Icarii quo cecidisse gener.
Utque loquax in equo est elisum guttur acerno,
     Sic tibi claudatur pollice vocis iter.                570
Aut ut Anaxarchus pila minuaris in alta,
     Ictaque pro solitis frugibus ossa sonent.
Utque patrem Psamathes, condat te Phoebus in ima
     Tartara, quod natae fecerat ille suae.
Inque tuos ea pestis eat, quam dextra Coroebi

     By a crime, may she be a sister to you, she whom your own deeds make a parent.
And in your very bones let that kind of missile stick,
     by which the son‑in‑law of Icarius is handed down to have fallen.
And as the babbler’s throat was crushed on the maple‑wood horse,
     so may the path of your voice be closed by a thumb.                570
Or as Anaxarchus was diminished in a high mortar,
     and, when struck, let bones rattle in place of the usual grain.
And as the father of Psamathe, may Phoebus bury you in the lowest
     Tartarus, because of what he had done to his own daughter.
And into your own may that pestilence go, which the right hand of Coroebus

575

     Vicit, opem miseris Argolisinque tulit.
Utque nepos Aethrae, Veneris moriturus ob iram,
     Exul ab attonitis excutiaris equis.
Propter opes magnas ut perdidit hospes alumnum,
     Perdat ob exiguas te tuus hospes opes.

     He conquered, and brought help to the wretched Argives too.
And as the grandson of Aethra, destined to die on account of Venus’s wrath,
     may you, an exile, be shaken out from panic-stricken horses.
Just as a host, because of great riches, destroyed his ward,
     so may your own host destroy you on account of scanty resources.

580

Utque ferunt caesos sex cum Damasicthone fratres,
     Intereat tecum sic genus omne tuum.
Addidit ut fidicen miseris sua funera natis,
     Sic tibi sint vitae taedia iusta tuae.
Utve soror Pelopis, saxo dureris oborto,

And as they say six brothers were cut down along with Damasichthon,
     so may your whole race perish with you.
And as the lyre-player added his own funeral to the funerals of his wretched sons,
     so may the just tedium of your life be yours.
Or as the sister of Pelops, may you be hardened into stone when the rock has arisen,

585

     Ut laesus lingua Battus ab ipse sua.
Aera si misso vacuum iaculabere disco,
     Quo puer Oebalides, ictus ab orbe cadas.
Siqua per alternos pulsabitur unda lacertos,
     Omnis Abydena sit tibi peior aqua.                590
Comicus ut liquidis periit, dum nabat, in undis,
     Et tua sic Stygius strangulet ora liquor.
Aut ubi ventosum superaris naufragus aequor,
     Contacta pereas, ut Palinurus, humo.
Utque coturnatum vatem tutela Dianae,

     As Battus was hurt by his own tongue.
If you hurl the discus into the empty air,
     may you fall, like the Oebalidan boy, struck by the disk.
If any wave is driven by alternating upper arms,
     let every water be worse for you than the Abydene water.                590
As the comic actor perished in the limpid waves while he swam,
     so may Stygian liquid strangle your mouth as well.
Or when, shipwrecked, you have overcome the windy plain of the sea,
     may you perish, on touching the ground, like Palinurus.
And as the guardianship of Diana [for] the buskined bard,

595

     Dilaniet vigilum te quoque turba canum.
Aut ut Trinacrius salias super ora gigantis,
     Plurima qua flammas Sicanis Aetna vomit.
Diripiantque tuos insanis unguibus artus
     Strymoniae matres, Orpheos esse ratae.

     Let the throng of watch-dogs tear you to pieces as well.
Or, Trinacrian, may you leap upon the jaws of the Giant,
     where Sicanian Aetna vomits very many flames.
And let the Strymonian mothers with mad talons tear your limbs,
     taking you for Orpheus.

600

Natus ut Althaeae flammis absentibus arsit,
     Sic tuus ardescat stipitis igne rogus.
Ut nova Phasiaca comprensa est nupta corona,
     Utque pater nuptae, cumque parente domus;
Ut cruor Herculeos abiit diffusus in artus;

As Althaea’s son burned with the flames absent,
     so may your pyre blaze with the fire of the log.
As the new bride was seized by the Phasian crown,
     and as the bride’s father, and the house together with the parent;
as the blood went, diffused, into the Herculean limbs;

605

     Corpora pestiferum sic tua virus edat.
Qua sua Penteliden proles est ulta Lycurgum,
     Haec maneat teli te quoque plaga novi.
Utque Milo robur diducere fissile temptes,
     Nec possis captas inde referre manus.

     Thus may a pestiferous virus eat away your bodies.
As his own offspring has avenged Lycurgus the Pentelid,
     May this wound of a new weapon abide for you as well.
And as Milo you may attempt to draw apart the fissile oak,
     Nor be able thence to bring back your hands, once captured.

610

Muneribusque tuis laedaris, ut Icarus, in quem
     Intulit armatas ebria turba manus.
Quodque dolore necis patriae pia filia fecit,
     Vincula per laquei fac tibi guttur eat.
Obstructoque famem patiaris limine tecti,

And may you be harmed by your own gifts, like Icarus, against whom
     a drunken mob laid armed hands.
And what the dutiful daughter did from grief at the slaughter of her fatherland,
     make your throat go through the bonds of the noose.
And with the threshold of the house blocked, may you suffer hunger,

615

     Ut legem poenae cui dedit ipsa parens.
Illius exemplo violes simulacra Minervae,
     Aulidis a portu qui leve vertit iter.
Naupliadaeve modo poenas pro crimine falso
     Morte luas, nec te non meruisse iuvet.

     So that you may undergo the law of penalty which his mother herself ordained.
By his example, violate the images of Minerva,
     he who turned his light course from the harbor of Aulis.
Or in the manner of the Naupliad pay the penalties for a false crime
     with death, nor let it be any comfort to you that you did not deserve it.

620

Aethalon ut vita spoliavit Isindius hospes,
     Quem memor a sacris nunc quoque pellit Ion:
Utque Melanthea tenebris a caede latentem
     Prodidit officio luminis ipsa parens:
Sic tua coniectis fodiantur viscera telis,

As Isindius, a guest, despoiled Aethalon of life,
     whom, mindful, Ion even now drives away from the sacred rites:
And as Melantheus, lurking in darkness after the slaughter,
     was betrayed by the parent herself by the office of light:
Thus may your entrails be gouged with hurled weapons,

625

     Sic precor auxiliis impediare tuis.
Qualis equos pacto, quos fortis agebat Achilles,
     Acta Phrygi timido, nox tibi talis eat.
Nec tu quam Rhesus somno meliore quiescas,
     Quam comites Rhesi tum necis, ante viae;

     Thus I pray you be impeded by your own aids.
Such as the horses, by a pact, which brave Achilles was driving,
     with the Phrygian shore afraid, may such a night go to you.
Nor may you rest with a sleep better than Rhesus,
     than Rhesus’s companions then, of the slaughter, before the way;

630

Quam quos cum Rutulo morti Ramnete dederunt
     Impiger Hyrtacides Hyrtacidaeque comes.
Cliniadaeve modo circumdatus ignibus atris
     Membra feras Stygiae semicremata neci.
Utque Remo muros auso transire recentes,

Than those whom, together with the Rutulian Ramnes, they gave to death
     the indefatigable Hyrtacides and the companion of the Hyrtacides.
Or like the Cliniades, just now surrounded by black fires,
     may you bear limbs half-cremated to Stygian death.
And as with Remus, when he dared to cross the fresh walls,

635

     Noxia sint capiti rustica tela tuo.
Denique Sarmaticas inter Geticasque sagittas
     His precor ut vivas et moriare locis.
Haec tibi tantisper subito sint missa libello,
     Inmemores ne nos esse querare tui.

     May rustic weapons be noxious to your head.
Finally, amid Sarmatian and Getic arrows,
     I pray that you live and die in these places.
For the meantime let these things be suddenly sent to you in a little book,
     lest you complain that we are unmindful of you.

640

Pauca quidem, fateor: sed di dent plura rogatis,
Multiplicentque suo vota favore mea.
Postmodo plura leges et nomen habentia verum,
Et pede quo debent acria bella geri.

A few things indeed, I confess; but may the gods grant more to your requests,
and may they multiply my vows by their own favor.
Afterwards you will read more, and those bearing the true name,
and in the foot with which keen wars ought to be waged.