Statius: ACHILLEID

Exuit implicitum tenebris umentibus orbem
Oceano prolata dies, genitorque coruscae
lucis adhuc hebetem vicina nocte levabat
et nondum excusso rorantem lampada ponto.
et iam punicea nudatum pectora palla                5
insignemque ipsis, quae prima invaserat, armis
Aeaciden--quippe aura vocat cognataque suadent
aequora--prospectant cuncti iuvenemque ducemque
nil ausi meminisse pavent; sic omnia visu
mutatus rediit, ceu numquam Scyria passus                10
litora Peliacoque rates escendat ab antro.
tunc ex more deis--ita namque monebat Ulixes--
aequoribusque austrisque litat fluctuque sub ipso
caeruleum regem tauro veneratur avumque
Nerea: vittata genetrix placata iuvenca.                15

Day, borne across the dewy orb by Ocean, cast off what darkness had enwrapped,
and the sire of sparkling light yet with the neighbouring night lifted the dimness
and not yet, freed, the lamps bedewed from the sea.
and now, his breast bared by a purple pall                5
and notable in the very arms that first had seized him, the Aeacidian— for the breeze calls and the kindred seas urge—
all gaze forth and, daring nothing, fear to remember the youth and leader; thus changed in aspect
he returned to all, as if never having endured Scyrian shores                10
nor to embark the Pelian ships from the cave.
then, according to the gods’ wont—so Ulysses was advising—
he propitiates with offerings the seas and the south-winds, and with a wave beneath himself
venerates the blue king and the bull ancestor Nereus: the filleted mother, the heifer, is placated.                15

hic spumante salo iaciens tumida exta profatur:
'Paruimus, genetrix, quamquam haut toleranda iuberes,
paruimus nimium: bella ad Troiana ratesque
Argolicas quaesitus eo.' sic orsus et alno
insiluit penitusque Noto stridente propinquis                20
abripitur terris: et iam ardua ducere nubes
incipit et longo Scyros discedere ponto.
     Turre procul summa lacrimis comitata sororum
commissumque tenens et habentem nomina Pyrrhum
pendebat coniunx oculisque in carbasa fixis                25
ibat et ipsa freto, et puppem iam sola videbat.
ille quoque obliquos dilecta ad moenia vultus
declinat viduamque domum gemitusque relictae
cogitat: occultus sub corde renascitur ardor
datque locum virtus.

here, his swollen entrails foaming with salt, lying, he speaks:
'We have arrived, mother, although you would bid that we not be borne,
we have come too far: I went in search of Trojan wars and Argive ships.' Thus having begun he leapt into the alder-boat
and is snatched away from the lands by the South Wind, whistling near                20
and now begins to drive the lofty clouds and to leave Scyros on the long sea.
     From far off on the highest tower his wife, accompanied by the tears of her sisters,
holding the entrusted child and bearing the name Pyrrhus,
hung and herself went forth on the sail with eyes fixed on the canvas                25
and saw the stern already alone. He likewise turns his beloved face obliquely to the walls
and thinks of the widowed home and of the groans of the left-behind: a hidden ardor is reborn beneath his heart
and virtue yields place.

sentit Laertius heros 30

the Laertian hero feels 30

maerentem et placidis adgressus flectere dictis:
'Tene' inquit, 'magnae vastator debite Troiae,
quem Danaae classes, quem divum oracula poscunt,
erectumque manet reserato in limine Bellum,
callida femineo genetrix violavit amictu                35
commisitque illis tam grandia furta latebris
speravitque fidem? nimis o suspensa nimisque
mater! an haec tacita virtus torperet in umbra,
quae vix audito litui clangore refugit
et Thetin et comites et quos suppresserat ignes?                40
nec nostrum est, quod in arma venis sequerisque precantis;
venisses--' dixit; quem talibus occupat heros
Aeacius: 'Longum resides exponere causas
maternumque nefas; hoc excusabitur ense
Scyros et indecores, fatorum crimina, cultus.                45

approaching the mourner and seeking to bend him with gentle words:
'Tene,' he says, 'destroyer of great Troy, rightly summoned,
whom the Danaans' fleets, whom the oracles of the gods demand,
and War stands upright with the threshold unlocked,
did the cunning mother violate a woman's cloak                35
and entrust to those hiding-places so great a theft,
and hope for fidelity? Too—O suspended and too anxious—mother!
or would this silent virtue lie numb in the shadow,
she who at the mere heard clang of the curved trumpet fled back,
both Thetis and her companions and those whom the fires had quelled?                40
nor is it ours that you come into arms and follow a suppliant's pleading;
you should have come—' he said; whom with such words the hero Aeacius seizes:
'It would be a long matter to set forth the causes and the mother's crime;
this will be excused by the sword at Scyros and by unseemly rites, the crimes of fate, the cults.'                45

tu potius, dum lene fretum Zephyroque fruuntur
carbasa, quae Danais tanti primordia belli,
ede: libet iustas hinc sumere protinus iras.'
     Hic Ithacus paulum repetito longius orsu:
'Fertur in Hectorea, si talia credimus, Ida                50
electus formae certamina solvere pastor
sollicitas tenuisse deas, nec torva Minervae
ora nec aetherii sociam rectoris amico
lumine, sed solam nimium vidisse Dionen.
atque adeo lis illa tuis exorta sub antris                55
concilio superum, dum Pelea dulce maritat
Pelion, et nostris iam tunc promitteris armis.
ira quatit victas; petit exitialia iudex
praemia; raptori faciles monstrantur Amyclae.

you rather, while the smooth sea and the sails enjoy the Zephyr
which for the Danaans were the very primordia of so great a war,
declare: it pleases to take just angers hence straightaway.'
Here the Ithacan, with the beginning repeated, more at length:
'They say on Hectorean Ida, if we believe such matters, a shepherd,
chosen for beauty, strove to settle contests and held the solicited goddesses, nor did he behold
the stern face of Minerva nor the companion of the heavenly ruler with friendly light,
but saw only Dione too much. And indeed that quarrel, sprung from your caves,
was taken up in the council of the superiors, while Peleus weds sweet Pelion,
and already then you were promised by our arms. Anger shakes the conquered; the judge
seeks deadly rewards; plunder is shown easy to the ravisher at Amyclae.

ille Phrygas lucos, matris penetralia caedit 60

he cleaves down Phrygian groves, the penetralia of the mother 60

turrigerae veritasque solo procumbere pinus
praecipitat terrasque freto delatus Achaeas
hospitis Atridae--pudet heu miseretque potentis
Europae!--spoliat thalamos, Helenaque superbus
navigat et captos ad Pergama devehit Argos.                65
inde dato passim varias rumore per urbes,
undique inexciti sibi quisque et sponte coimus
ultores: quis enim inlicitis genialia rumpi
pacta dolis facilique trahi conubia raptu
ceu pecus armentumve aut vilis messis acervos                70
perferat? haec etiam fortes iactura moveret.
non tulit insidias divum imperiosus Agenor
mugitusque sacros et magno numine vectam
quaesiit Europen aspernatusque Tonantem est
ut generum; raptam Scythico de litore prolem                75

even the tower-crowned pine and the truth fall prostrate to the ground;
he hurls them down and, borne over the sea, to Achaean lands—
the host’s Atrides is despoiled—oh it shames and pities mighty
Europa!—he strips her chambers, and proud sails off with Helen
and bears the captured to Pergama and to Argos.                65
thence, with rumor given forth everywhere through the cities,
on every side each man, roused and of his own accord, assembles
as avengers: for who would endure that nuptial bonds be broken by fraud,
pacts violated and marriages drawn away by an easy rape,
as one bears off cattle or a flock or worthless heaps of harvest?                70
even this loss would move the brave. Agenor, proud in command of the gods,
would not brook the treachery; he sought Europa, borne with holy lowing
and great divine power, and he scorned the Thunderer as a son‑in‑law;
the offspring seized from the Scythian shore…                75

non tulit Aeetes ferroque et classe secutus
semideos reges et ituram in sidera puppim:
nos Phryga semivirum portus et litora circum
Argolica incesta volitantem puppe feremus?
usque adeo nusquam arma et equi, fretaque invia Grais?                80
quid si nunc aliquis patriis rapturus ab oris
Deidamian eat viduaque e sede revellat
attonitam et magni clamantem nomen Achillis?'
illius ad capulum rediit manus ac simul ingens
inpulit ora rubor; tacuit contentus Ulixes.                85
     Excipit Oenides: 'Quin, o dignissima caeli
progenies, ritusque tuos elementaque primae
indolis et, valida mox accedente iuventa,
quae solitus laudum tibi semina pandere Chiron
virtutisque aditus, quas membra augere per artes,                90

Aeetes did not endure—and with sword and fleet following
the semi-divine kings he would put the stern to the stars:
shall we bear a half-man about Phrygian harbors and shores
and, unchaste, on an Argive prow fluttering? Are there truly nowhere arms and horses, and seas impassable to the Greeks?                80
what if now someone, about to carry off from his native coasts
Deidamia, should go and rend the widow from her seat,
astonished and crying out the great name of Achilles?'
to the hilt his hand drew back and at once a mighty
flush pressed his face; Ulysses fell silent, content.                85
     Oenides takes up: 'Nay, O most worthy offspring of heaven,
and your rites and the elements of your primal nature
and, with vigorous youth soon coming on,
those things which Chiron was wont to unfold to you—the seeds of praise—
and approaches to virtue, which the limbs augment through arts,                90

quas animum, sociis multumque faventibus edis?
sit pretium longas penitus quaesisse per undas
Scyron et his primum me arma ostendisse lacertis.'
     Quem pigeat sua facta loqui? tamen ille modeste
incohat, ambiguus paulum propiorque coacto:                95
'Dicor et in teneris et adhuc reptantibus annis,
Thessalus ut rigido senior me monte recepit,
non ullos ex more cibos hausisse nec almis
uberibus satiasse famem, sed spissa leonum
viscera semianimisque lupae traxisse medullas.                100
haec mihi prima Ceres, haec laeti munera Bacchi,
sic dabat ille pater.

what feats of spirit, and favoring my comrades greatly, do you set forth?
let it be my prize to have searched through the long waves to Scyron, and first to have shown my arms on these brawny limbs.'
     Who would be ashamed to speak of his own deeds? yet he begins modestly,
somewhat ambiguous and drawing nearer as he is compelled:                95
'They say that even in my tender and still‑crawling years
a Thessalian elder received me on a rugged hill,
that I did not suck any foods in the usual manner nor sate my hunger
at nourishing breasts, but tore out the thick entrails of lions
and drew forth the marrow of wolves half‑alive.                100
these were for me the first Ceres, these the glad gifts of Bacchus,
thus did that father give.

mox ire per invia secum
lustra gradu maiore trahens visisque docebat
adridere feris nec fracta ruentibus undis
saxa nec ad vastae trepidare silentia silvae. 105

soon to go with him through trackless lustras
dragging the groves with a prouder step and, showing what they had seen, instructing them
to smile at wild beasts, nor to fear rocks broken by rushing waves
nor to tremble at the vast silence of the forest. 105

iam tunc arma manu, iam tunc cervice pharetrae,
et ferri properatus amor durataque multo
sole geluque cutis; tenero nec fluxa cubili
membra, sed ingenti saxum commune magistro.
vix mihi bissenos annorum torserat orbes 110
vita rudis, volucris cum iam praevertere cervos
et Lapithas cogebat equos praemissaque cursu
tela sequi; saepe ipse gradu me praepete Chiron,
dum velox aetas, campis admissus agebat
omnibus, exhaustumque vago per gramina passu 115
laudabat gaudens atque in sua terga levabat.
saepe etiam primo fluvii torpore iubebar
ire supra glaciemque levi non frangere planta.

even then arms in hand, even then a quiver at my neck,
and a hastened love of iron and skin hardened much by sun and cold;
not limbs wasted on a tender couch, but a rock shared with a mighty master.
scarcely had crude life wound for me two times ten circles of years 110
when the swift bird already drove the deer to be overtaken
and urged the Lapiths' horses, and with launched course the missiles to follow; often Chiron himself,
with headlong step, while my age was fleet, set me to act among all on the plains,
and, rejoicing, praised me, spent with wandering foot through the grasses, 115
and lifted me onto his back. Often too I was bidden
to go upon the first numbness of the river and not to break the thin sole of the ice with my foot.

hoc puerile decus. quid nunc tibi proelia dicam
silvarum et saevo vacuos iam murmure saltus? 120

this puerile glory. what now shall I tell you of the battles
of the woods and glades, now empty of their fierce murmur? 120

numquam ille inbelles Ossaea per avia dammas
sectari aut timidas passus me cuspide lyncas
sternere, sed tristes turbare cubilibus ursos
fulmineosque sues, et sicubi maxima tigris
aut seducta iugis fetae spelunca leaenae.                125
ipse sedens vasto facta exspectabat in antro,
si sparsus nigro remearem sanguine; nec me
ante nisi inspectis admisit ad oscula telis.
iamque et ad ensiferos vicina pube tumultus
aptabar, nec me ulla feri Mavortis imago                130
praeteriit. didici, quo Paeones arma rotatu,
quo Macetae sua gaesa citent, quo turbine contum
Sauromates falcemque Getes arcumque Gelonus
tenderet et flexae Balearicus actor habenae
quo suspensa trahens libraret vulnera tortu                135

never did that one suffer me to chase through Ossaean byways the tame dammas, nor to lay low timid lynxes with my spear, but to disturb the sorrowful bears in their lairs and the swine struck by lightning, and wherever the greatest tiger or a lioness, having been drawn from the ridges, was with young in a cave.                125
he himself sitting awaited the deeds in a vast cavern, if I should return sprinkled with black blood; nor did he admit me to kisses before the weapons had been inspected.
and now I was being fitted out for the sword-bearing throng of youth nearby, nor did any image of warlike Mars pass me by.                130
I learned where the Paeones wheel their arms, where the Macetae speed their gaesa, where in a whirlwind the Sauromatae would hurl the sickle and the Getae the bow and Gelonus would stretch his, and where the Balearic master of the bent rein — by which, drawing them suspended, he might poise wounds with a twisting balance.                135

inclusumque suo distingueret aera gyro.
vix memorem cunctos, etsi bene gessimus, actus.
nunc docet ingentes saltu me iungere fossas,
nunc caput aerii scandentem prendere montis,
quo fugitur per plana gradu, simulacraque pugnae 140
excipere inmissos curvato umbone molares
ardentesque intrare casas peditemque volantis
sistere quadriiugos.

and to sever the enclosed bronze with its own revolving gyro.
scarcely do I call to mind all the deeds, although we bore them well, acts.
now it teaches me by a great leap to join fossae together,
now to seize the summit of an airy-climbing montis,
by which one flees over the plains with a stride, and to take in the images of battle 140
to receive the launched molares from a curved umbo,
to enter burning casas and to halt the flying pedes and the four-yoked chariots.

memini, rapidissimus ibat
imbribus adsiduis pastus nivibusque solutis
Sperchios vivasque trabes et saxa ferebat, 145
cum me ille immissum, qua saevior impetus undae,
stare iubet contra tumidosque repellere fluctus,
quos vix ipse gradu totiens obstante tulisset.
stabam equidem, sed me referebat concitus amnis
et latae caligo fugae; ferus ille minari 150

I remember: most swift it went
fed by continuous rains and loosened snows,
the Sperchios bearing living beams and rocks away, 145
when he bade me, having been let loose — for the wave’s assault is fiercer —
to stand against and to repel the swollen floods,
which scarcely he himself, many times standing firm, would have borne by footing.
I indeed stood, but the hurried river carried me back
and a broad gloom of flight; that savage one threatened 150

desuper incumbens verbisque urgere pudorem.
nec nisi iussus abi: sic me sublimis agebat
gloria, nec duri tanto sub teste labores.
nam procul Oebalios in nubila condere discos
et liquidam nodare palen et spargere caestus, 155
ludus erat requiesque mihi; nec maior in istis
sudor, Apollineo quam fila sonantia plectro
cum quaterem priscosque virum mirarer honores.

pressing down from above and urging shame with words.
nor would I go away unless ordered: thus lofty glory drove me,
nor were the labors beneath so harsh a witness.
for to hurl Oebalian discs far into the clouds,
and to knot the smooth palen and to scatter the caestus, 155
the game was rest and recreation to me; nor greater sweat in these
than when, striking the strings that sound with Apollo’s plectrum,
I struck and admired the ancient honors of men.

quin etiam sucos atque auxiliantia morbis
gramina, quo nimius staret medicamine sanguis, 160
quid faciat somnos, quid hiantia vulnera claudat,
quae ferro cohibenda lues, quae cederet herbis,
edocuit monitusque sacrae sub pectore fixit
iustitiae, qua Peliacis dare iura verenda
gentibus atque suos solitus pacare biformes. 165

nay even the juices and grasses assisting maladies,
by which a remedy would staunch excessive blood, 160
what produces sleep, what closes gaping wounds,
what pestilence must be curbed by iron, what would yield to herbs,
he taught, and he fixed the admonition in his sacred breast
of justice, by which he was wont to give reverend laws to the Peliac
peoples and to pacify his own two‑formed folk. 165

hactenus annorum, comites, elementa meorum
et memini et meminisse iuvat: scit cetera mater.'

Thus far of my years, companions, the elements I remember,
and I both remember and it delights me to remember: my mother knows the rest.'