Ovid: HEROIDES

Pyrrhus Achillides, animosus imagine patris,
inclusam contra iusque piumque tenet.
quod potui renui, ne non invita tenerer,
cetera femineae non valuere manus.
"quid facis, Aeacidae?

Pyrrhus Achillides, spirited by the image of his father,
holds me enclosed against what is right and pious.
what I could I refused, lest I be held as not unwilling,
for the rest, a woman’s hands did not avail.
"what are you doing, Aeacid?

non sum sine vindice!" dixi
     "haec tibi sub domino est, Pyrrhe, puella suo!"
surdior ille freto clamantem nomen Orestis
     traxit inornatis in sua tecta comis.
quid gravius capta Lacedaemone serva tulissem,
     si raperet Graias barbara turba nurus?
parcius Andromachen vexavit Achaia victrix,
     cum Danaus Phrygias ureret ignis opes.

"I am not without a vindicator!" I said
     "this girl, Pyrrhus, is under her own lord!"
deafer than the sea, he dragged me, crying the name of Orestes,
     into his house, with unadorned locks.
what heavier would I have borne as a captive slave in Lacedaemon,
     if a barbarian mob were snatching Greek daughters-in-law?
more sparingly did victorious Achaea vex Andromache,
     when the Danaän fire was burning Phrygian wealth.

At tu, cura mei si te pia tangit, Oreste,
     inice non timidas in tua iura manus!
an si quis rapiat stabulis armenta reclusis,
     arma feras, rapta coniuge lentus eris?
sit socer exemplo nuptae repetitor ademptae,
     cui pia militiae causa puella fuit;
si pater ignavus vidua plorasset in aula,
     nupta foret Paridi mater, ut ante fuit.

But you, Orestes, if pious care for me touches you,
     lay not-timid hands upon your rights!
Or if someone should snatch the herds from opened stalls,
     would you bear arms, and be sluggish with your wife snatched?
Let your father-in-law be, as an example, a reclaimer of a stolen bride,
     for whom a girl was a pious cause of military service;
if my father, cowardly, had wept in the widowed hall,
     my mother would have been wed to Paris, as she was before.

Nec tu mille rates sinuosaque vela pararis
     nec numeros Danai militis: ipse veni!
sic quoque eram repetenda tamen, nec turpe marito
     aspera pro caro bella tulisse toro.
quid, quod avus nobis idem Pelopeius Atreus,
     et si non esses vir mihi, frater eras.

Nor do you prepare a thousand ships and sinuous sails
     nor the numbers of Danaan soldiery: come yourself!
Even so I was nevertheless to be reclaimed, nor is it shameful for a husband
     to have borne harsh wars for the dear bed.
What of the fact that the same Pelopian Atreus is our grandsire,
     and if you were not a husband to me, you were a brother.

vir, precor, uxori, frater succurre sorori;
instant officio nomina bina tuo.
Me tibi Tyndareus, vita gravis auctor et annis
tradidit; arbitrium neptis habebat avus.

Husband, I pray, help your wife; brother, come to the aid of your sister;
two names press upon your duty.
Tyndareus, an authority weighty in life and in years,
delivered me to you; the grandsire held the judgment over his granddaughter.

at pater Aeacidae promiserat inscius acti;
     plus patre, quo prior est ordine, posset avus.
cum tibi nubebam, nulli mea taeda nocebat;
     si iungar Pyrrho, tu mihi laesus eris.
et pater ignoscet nostro Menelaus amori;
     succubuit telis praepetis ipse dei.

but the father of the Aeacid had promised, unaware of what had been done;
     the grandfather, because he is prior in order, could have more power than the father.
when I was wedding you, my torch harmed no one;
     if I am joined to Pyrrhus, you will be injured by me.
and father Menelaus will pardon our love;
     he himself succumbed to the darts of the winged god.

quem sibi permisit, genero concedet amorem.
proderit exemplo mater amata suo.
tu mihi, quod matri pater est.

She will concede to the son-in-law the love which she permitted to herself.
The mother, loved in her own case, will be of benefit as an example.
You are to me what father is to mother.

quas egerat olim
     Dardanius partes advena, Pyrrhus agit.
ille licet patriis sine fine superbiat actis;
     et tu quae referas facta parentis habes.
Tantalides omnes ipsumque regebat Achillem;
     hic pars militiae, dux erat ille ducum.

the roles which once the Dardanian stranger played, Pyrrhus now plays.
let him, though, boast without end of his paternal deeds;
and you too have deeds of your parent to relate.
a Tantalid ruled all, and Achilles himself;
here a part of the soldiery, he was there the leader of leaders.

tu quoque habes proavum Pelopem Pelopisque parentem;
si melius numeres, a Iove quintus eris.
Nec virtute cares. arma invidiosa tulisti;
sed tu quid faceres?

you too have a great-grandfather Pelops and Pelops’s parent;
if you reckon better, you will be fifth from Jove.
Nor do you lack virtue. you have borne invidious arms;
but you—what would you have done?

induit illa pater.
materia vellem fortis meliore fuisses;
non lecta est operi, sed data causa tuo.
hanc tamen implesti; iuguloque Aegisthus aperto
tecta cruentavit, quae pater ante tuus.

your father donned those.
I would that you had been brave with better material;
the cause for your work was not chosen, but given.
yet this you fulfilled; and Aegisthus, with his throat opened,
bloodied the house, which your father before had.

increpat Aeacides laudemque in crimina vertit;
     et tamen aspectus sustinet ille meos.
rumpor et ora mihi pariter cum mente tumescunt
     pectoraque inclusis ignibus usta dolent.
Hermione coram quisquamne obiecit Oresti,
     nec mihi sunt vires, nec ferus ensis adest!

the Aeacid reproaches and turns praise into crimes;
     and yet he endures my looks.
I am bursting, and my lips together with my mind swell,
     and my breast, burned by enclosed fires, aches.
Has anyone, before Hermione, cast it in Orestes’ face,
     and have I neither strength, nor is the fierce sword at hand!

flere licet certe; flendo diffundimus iram,
     perque sinum lacrimae fluminis instar eunt.
has semper solas habeo semperque profundo;
     ument incultae fonte perenne genae.
Num generis fato, quod nostros errat in annos,
     Tantalides matres apta rapina sumus?

it is permitted to weep surely; by weeping we diffuse our ire,
     and through my bosom the tears go in the likeness of a river.
these alone I always have and always pour forth;
     my unadorned cheeks are wet with a perennial spring.
Surely by the fate of our lineage, which errs into our years,
     are we Tantalid mothers a prey apt for rapine?

non ego fluminei referam mendacia cygni
     nec querar in plumis delituisse Iovem.
qua duo porrectus longe freta distinet Isthmos,
     vecta peregrinis Hippodamia rotis.
Castori Amyclaeo et Amyclaeo Polluci
     reddita Moposia Taenaris urbe soror;
Taenaris Idaeo trans aequor ab hospite rapta
     Argolicas pro se vertit in arma manus.

I will not recount the mendacities of the fluvial swan
     nor complain that Jove lay hidden in plumage.
where the Isthmus, stretched far, separates two seas,
     Hippodamia was borne by peregrine wheels.
Castor of Amyclae and Amyclaean Pollux
     had their sister given back, in the Taenarian city, from the Mopsopian city;
the Taenarian woman, snatched across the sea by the Idaean guest,
     turned Argolic hands into arms on her own behalf.

vix equidem memini. memini tamen: omnia luctus,
omnia solliciti plena timoris erant.
flebat avus Phoebeque soror fratresque gemelli,
orabat superos Leda suumque Iovem.

I scarcely indeed remember. I remember, however: everything was mourning,
everything was full of anxious fear. The grandfather wept, and the sister Phoebe and the twin brothers,
Leda was beseeching the gods above and her own Jove.

ipsa ego non longos etiam tunc scissa capillos
clamabam "sine me, me sine, mater abis?"
nam coniunx aberat. ne non Pelopeia credar,
ecce Neoptolemo praeda parata fui.
Pelides utinam vitasset Apollinis arcus!

I myself, my hair not yet long, even then rent,
I was crying "Are you going without me, without me, mother?"
for my husband was absent. lest I not be believed a Pelopid,
lo, I was prey prepared for Neoptolemus.
Would that the son of Peleus had avoided Apollo's bow!

damnaret nati facta proterva pater.
nec quondam placuit nec nunc placuisset Achilli
abducta viduum coniuge flere virum.
quae mea caelestes iniuria fecit iniquos?

let the father condemn the reckless deeds of his son.
nor once did it please, nor now would it have pleased, Achilles
that a husband, his spouse abducted, a widowed man, should weep.
what injury of mine made the celestials unjust?

     quodve mihi miserae sidus obesse querar?
parva mea sine matre fui; pater arma ferebat;
     et duo cum vivant, orba duobus eram.
non tibi blanditias primis, mea mater, in annis
     incerto dictas ore puella tuli.

     or what star I, wretched, should complain has harmed me?
I, little, was without my mother; my father bore arms;
     and though both live, I was orphaned of both.
not to you did I, my mother, in my first years bring blandishments
     spoken with an uncertain mouth by a girl.

non ego captavi brevibus tua colla lacertis,
     nec gremio sedi sarcina grata tuo.
non cultus tibi cura mei, nec pacta marito
     intravi thalamos matre parante novos.
obvia prodieram reduci tibi—vera fatebor—
     nec facies nobis nota parentis erat!

I did not try to capture your neck with my short little arms,
     nor did I sit, a welcome burden, in your lap.
nor was my cultivation/adornment your care, nor, by a pact to a husband
     did I enter new bridal chambers, my mother preparing them.
I had come forth to meet you returning—I will confess the truth—
     nor was the face of a parent known to me!

te tamen esse Helenen, quod eras pulcherrima, sensi;
     ipsa requirebas quae tua nata foret.
Pars haec una mihi, coniunx bene cessit Orestes;
     is quoque, ni pro se pugnet, ademptus erit.
Pyrrhus habet captam reduce et victore parente;
     munus et hoc nobis diruta Troia dedit!

Yet I sensed that you were Helen, since you were most beautiful;
     you yourself were inquiring which would be your daughter.
This one part alone, husband Orestes, has turned out well for me;
     he too, unless he fights for himself, will be taken away.
Pyrrhus holds me captured, with my parent returned and victorious;
     and this gift too ruined Troy has given to us!

cum tamen altus equis Titan radiantibus instant,
     perfruor infelix liberiore malo;
nox ubi me thalamis ululantem et acerba gementem
     condidit in maesto procubuique toro,
pro somno lacrimis oculi funguntur obortis
     quaque licet fugio sicut ab hoste viro.
saepe malis stupeo rerumque oblita locique
     ignara tetigi Scyria membra manu;
utque nefas sensi, male corpora tacta relinquo
     et mihi pollutas credor habere manus.
saepe Neoptolemi pro nomine nomen Orestis
     exit, et errorem vocis ut omen amo.

yet when high Titan presses on with radiant horses,
     unhappy, I thoroughly enjoy a freer ill;
when night has hidden me, howling and bitterly groaning, in the bridal chambers,
     and I have sunk upon the mournful couch,
in place of sleep my eyes perform with tears that have arisen,
     and wherever it is permitted I flee from the man as from an enemy.
often I am stupefied by evils, and, forgetful of things and of the place,
     unknowing I have touched Scyrian limbs with my hand;
and when I sensed the nefariousness, I leave the ill-touched body,
     and I believe that my hands are polluted.
often in place of the name of Neoptolemus the name of Orestes
     comes out, and I love the error of the voice as an omen.

Per genus infelix iuro generisque parentem,
     qui freta, qui terras et sua regna quatit;
per patris ossa tui, patrui mihi, quae tibi debent,
     quod se sub tumulo fortiter ulta iacent:
aut ego praemoriar primoque exstinguar in aevo,
     aut ego Tantalidae Tantalis uxor ero!

I swear by my ill‑fated race and the parent of my race,
     who shakes the straits, who the lands and his own realms;
by the bones of your father, my paternal uncle, which are owed to you,
     since, bravely avenged, they lie beneath the tumulus:
either I shall die beforehand and be extinguished in my first age,
     or I shall be the Tantalid’s Tantalian wife!