Sabinus: EPISTULAE TRES AD OVIDIANAS EPISTULAS RESPONSORIAE

PHYLLIDI Demophoon patria dimittit ab urbe,
Et patriam meminit muneris esse tui.
Nec face Demophoon alia, nec coniuge captus,
Sed tam non felix, quam tibi notus erat.
THESEA, quo socero nequicquam, Phylli, timebas;
Impuleritne ignes forsitan fille tuos?

PHYLLIDI Demophoon sends Phyllis away from the native city,
And remembers the fatherland to be your gift.
Nor let Demophoon be another’s torch, nor seized by a wife,
But not so happy as he was known to you.
THESEA, whom, Phyllis, you feared in vain as a father‑in‑law;
Might the fires perhaps have driven away your sons?

Turpe pati nobis! regno ferus expulit hospes
Hunc illi finem longa senecta dedit.
Qui modo peltiferas fudit Maeotidas armis,
Alcidae magni non minor esse comes;
Qui socerum Minoa gravi sibi fecit ab hoste,
Mirantem monstri cornua victa sui.

It is shameful for us to endure! A savage stranger has driven us from the kingdom;
to him long old age has given this end.
He who but now routed the shield-bearing Maeotian forces,
a companion not less than great Alcides;
who made Minos his father-in-law, grievous to himself from the enemy,
marvelling that the monster’s horns were vanquished by him.

ARGUOR exsilii, quis credat? causa fuisse;
Nec tacitum frater, nec sinit esse reum
«Dum thalamos, inquit, dilectae Phyllidos urges,
Et tuus externo cessat in igne furor;
Fluxere interea pede tempora lapsa fugaci,
Praevenitque tuas flebilis hora moras.
Forsitan aut nondum fractis occurrere rebus,
Aut poteras fractis utilis esse tamen.

I am accused of causing the exile — who would believe it?
Nor is my brother silent, nor does he allow me to stand accused
“While you press, he says, toward the bridal-chambers of beloved Phyllis,
and your passion abates in a foreign flame;
Meanwhile the times have flowed away on a fleeting foot,
and the lamentable hour anticipates your delays. Perhaps either, not yet with affairs broken, you could come to meet them,
or you could nevertheless be useful when affairs are broken.

Cur potiora tibi Rhodopeia regna fuere,
Quaeque magis regnis cara puella fuit?
Intonat his Athamas; eadem mox obiicit AEtllra,
Infelix functae iam prope sortis anus;
Et quod non condant nati sua lumina palmae,
Fecisse haec nostras arguit usque moras.
Non equidem inficior: multum clamavit uterque,
Staret Threiciis quum tnihi puppis aquis.

Why were the Rhodopean realms preferable to you,
And which girl was more dear to the realms? Athamas thunders at these; the same soon throws against Aetna,
Unhappy, an old woman now almost discharged of her allotted lot;
And because the sons do not close their eyes with their own palm,
She charges that these things have caused delays to us ever since. I do not deny it: each shouted greatly,
When the Thracian stern stood for me in the waters.

«Poscunt, Demophoon, quid cessas? carbasa venti:
Demophoon patrios respice iure deos.
Respice; et exemplum, qua gaudes, Phyllida sume:
Sic amat, ut terra nolit abire sua;
Utque redire velis, non ut comitetur euntem,
Te rogat; et praefert barbara regna tuis.»
ME tamen haec inter tacitum convicia saepe
Adversis memini vota tulisse Notis;
Saepe abitura tuo ponentem brachia collo,
Gavisum in fluctus aequora mota truces.

"They demand, Demophoon—why do you delay? the winds ask for sails:
Demophoon, look back to your ancestral gods by right.
Look back; and take as example her in whom you rejoice, Phyllis:
She loves so that she will not leave her own land;
and she entreats you that you wish to return, not that she accompany you going,
she begs you; and she prefers barbarian realms to yours."
ME, however, I remember that these things, amid silent reproaches of the adverse Notus,
often bore vows; often, about to depart, placing her arms upon your neck,
rejoicing, she stirred the waters into savage waves.

Nec metuam hoc, ipso coram genitore, fateri:
«Libertas meritis est mihi facta tuis;
Dicere, non duro dilectam Phyllida liqui
Pectore, nec praeceps vela ferenda dedi.
Et flevi; et flentem solando, saepe remansi,
Quum staret cursus iam mihi certa dies.
Denique Threicia veni rate; non dare Phyllis,
Quam potuit, iussit tardius ire ratem.

Nor will I fear to confess this, even before my own father:
“Freedom has been granted to me by your merits;
To say that I left beloved Phyllis with a hard heart
from my breast, nor did I rashly give the sails to be borne. And I wept; and, comforting her as she wept, I often remained,
when the day for my course already stood certain. Finally I came in a Thracian ship; not to give Phyllis,
as he could, he ordered the ship to go more slowly.

lgnosce et fasso! memor es Minoidos ipse;
Antiquus necdum pectore cessit amor;
Et quoties oculis circumdat sidera, dixit:
Quae fulget coelo, nostra puella fuit.
Illum dilecta Bacchus sibi cedere iussit
Coniuge; desertae crimen at ille subit.»
EXEMPLOQUE patris periurus dicor et ipse.

Forgive me even confessed! you yourself remember the Minos-born;
Ancient love has not yet yielded in my breast;
And whenever he with his eyes girds the stars about, he says:
She who shines in heaven was once our girl.
Bacchus ordered him to yield the beloved to himself as a wife;
But he endures the blame of one deserted.»
EXEMPLOQUE by my father's example I am called perjured also.

Nec quaeris causas, Sithoni dura, morae;
Nec satis ampla putas redituri pignora, si me
Non amor alterius, non amor ullus habet.
Nullane fama tibi turbatos, Phylli, penates
Theseos, et miserae rettulit acta domus?
Non laqueos audis cari me flere parentis?

Nor do you ask the causes of the harsh delay, O Sithoni;
Nor do you deem the pledges of return sufficiently ample, if to me
neither another's love, nor any love, belongs.
Has no report brought you, Phyllis, word of the disturbed penates,
of Theseus, and the deeds brought back to the wretched house?
Do you not hear the snares bewailing me for your dear parent?

Flebilior laqueis, hei mihi! causa subest.
Non fratrem Hippolytum?

More lamentable beneath the nooses is the cause, alas for me!
Is it not Hippolytus, my brother?

cecidit miserabilis ille,
Praeceps attonitis per freta raptus equis.
NON tamen excuso reditus, licet undique fata
Accumulent causas: tempora parva peto.
Thesea, quod superest, patrem tumulabimus ante:
Succedat tumulo non sine honore decens.

that wretched one has fallen,
headlong, swept through the straits by terrified horses.
NOT, however, do I plead my return as an excuse, though the fates on every side
heap up causes: I ask for a short time.
Theseus, what remains, we will first bury the father:
let a fitting honour follow the tomb, not without due decency.

Da spatium veniamque, peto: non perfidus absum;
Nec mihi iam terra tutior ulla tua est.
Quidquid mite fuit post diruta Pergama, quidquid
Aut bella, aut pelagi detinuere morae,
Sola fuit Thrace; patria quoque iactor in illa
Auxilium superes casibus una meis.
Si modo mens eadem!

Give me space and pardon, I beg: I am not faithless in my absence;
Nor is any land now more secure for me than yours.
Whatever was gentle after the toppled Pergamum, whatever
Either wars, or the delays of the sea detained,
Thrace alone was; I too call that my fatherland in it
May it survive as a help together to my misfortunes. If only the mind be the same!

nec quod sit iam mihi dives
Regia, Cecropia non minor arce, movet;
Nec patris offendunt casus, nec crimina matris;
Nec iam non felix omine Demophoon.
Quid si Phoebeam peterem, te coniuge, Troiam,
Perque annos sequerer bella gerenda decem?
Penelopen audis: toto laudatur in orbe,
Exemplum fidi non leve facta tori.

nor does it move me that now I am rich,
that a royal house, not lesser than the Cecropian citadel, is mine;
nor do my father's misfortunes offend me, nor my mother's crimes;
nor is Demophoon any longer unlucky in omen. What if I sought Phoebean Troy with you as my spouse,
and followed wars to be waged for ten years? You hear of Penelope: she is praised through the whole world,
an example of the faithful, her deed at the bed no small thing.

Illa pie, sic rumor ait, mendacia telae
Struxit, et instantes distulit arte procos
Quum properata palam revocaret stamina noctis,
Atque iterum in lanas omne rediret opus.
AT tua ne fugiant spreti connubia Thraces,
Phylli, times: ulli nubere, dura, potes!
Estque tibi pectus cuiusque accedere taedas?

Illa piously, so rumor says, wove the lies of her web
and with art put off the pressing suitors;
when, having hastily by day undone the threads of night,
and again the whole work returned into the wool.
BUT lest the Thracians, scorned, flee your nuptials, Phyllis, do you fear: can you, hard one, wed anyone?
And have you a breast to receive each man’s torches?

Obstat perfidiae nec metus iste tuae?
Ah! tibi quantus erit facti rubor! ah! tibi quantus
Tum dolor, adspicies quum mea vela procul!

Does not the fear of perfidy and that dread of yours stand in the way?
Ah! what a great blush of the deed will be yours! ah! how great
then the pain, when you shall behold my sails from afar!

Damnabisque tuos sero temeraria questus!
Demophoon, dices, hei tnihi! fidus erat;
Demophoon rediit, et saevos forsitan Euros
Passus , et hibernas dum quoque currit aquas.

And you will condemn your own too late with rash complaining!
"Demophoon," you will say, "ah! to me! he was faithful;"
Demophoon returned, and perhaps endured the fierce Eurus
and suffered, and likewise while he plied the wintry waters.

Ah! cur nescio quam properavimus, hei mihi! culpam?
Rupi, quam ruptam sum mihi questa, fidem.

Ah! why, I know not, did we hasten, ah me! whose fault?
I have broken faith; how shattered I am, I cried to myself.

SIC tamen, ac potius sic perstes, quam mihi de te
Ulterior tangat pectora, Phylli, dolor!
Quos tibi, me miserum! laqueos, quae fata minaris?

Thus nevertheless, and rather thus you will persist, than that a further pain touch my breast concerning you, Phyllis!
What snares for you — ah me, wretched me! — what fates do you threaten?

Et nimis audaces gens habet ista deos.
Parce, precor; famamque domus mihi crimen habentis
Perfidiae, gemina ne preme, dura, nota.
Excuset patrem fatis in parte relicta
Gnosis: non merui, cur ferar ipse nocens.

And that people has gods too audacious.
Spare me, I beg; and may the reputation of a house that bears the crime of perfidy
not press me, harsh fate, with its twin mark.
Let Gnosis excuse my father, left in part to the fates:
I did not deserve to be borne myself as guilty.

NUNC venti mea verba ferant, qui vela tulerunt.
Est animus reditus; sed pia causa tenet.

NUNC may the winds carry my words, which have borne the sails.
There is a spirit of return; but a pious cause restrains.