Statius: THEBAID

Asperat Aonios rabies audita cruenti
Tydeos; ipsi etiam minus ingemuere iacentem
Inachidae, culpantque uirum et rupisse queruntur
fas odii; quin te, diuum implacidissime, quamquam
praecipuum tunc caedis opus, Gradiue, furebas, 5
offensum uirtute ferunt, nec comminus ipsum
ora sed et trepidos alio torsisse iugales.
ergo profanatum Melanippi funus acerbo
uulnere non aliis ultum Cadmeia pubes
insurgunt stimulis, quam si turbata sepulcris 10
ossa patrum monstrisque datae crudelibus urnae.
accendit rex ipse super: 'quisquamne Pelasgis
mitis adhuc hominemque gerit?

Heard-of, the rage of bloody Tydeus roughens the Aonians; even the Inachidae themselves groaned less for their man lying there, and they blame the man and complain that he has broken the law of hatred; nay, they report that you, most implacable of the gods, Gradivus, although then you raged as the chief instrument of slaughter, 5
were offended by his valor, and that you did not set your face upon him at close quarters, but even wheeled your frightened team elsewhere. Therefore the Cadmeian youth rise up to avenge the profaned funeral of Melanippus, with his bitter wound, urged by no other goads than if the bones of their fathers were troubled in their sepulchres and their urns given to cruel monsters. 10
The king himself moreover inflames them: 'Does anyone among the Pelasgians still keep mildness and bear himself as a man?

iam morsibus uncis
(pro furor! usque adeo tela exatiauimus?) artus
dilacerant. nonne Hyrcanis bellare putatis 15

now with hooked bites
(O frenzy! have we to such an extent sharpened our weapons?) the limbs
they tear to pieces. do you not think you are waging war with Hyrcanians 15

tigribus, aut saeuos Libyae contra ire leones?
et nunc ille iacet (pulchra o solacia leti!)
ore tenens hostile caput, dulcique nefandus
inmoritur tabo; nos ferrum inmite facesque:
illis nuda odia, et feritas iam non eget armis. 20
sic pergant rabidi claraque hac laude fruantur,
dum uideas haec, summe pater. sed enim hiscere campos
conquesti terraeque fugam mirantur; an istos
uel sua portet humus?' magno sic fatus agebat
procursu fremituque uiros, furor omnibus idem 25
Tydeos inuisi spoliis raptoque potiri
corpore.

against tigers, or to go against the savage lions of Libya?
and now he lies (fair, O consolations of death!)
holding in his mouth the enemy’s head, and—unspeakable—he dies upon sweet
gore; we have the pitiless steel and torches:
for them hatreds are naked, and savagery now has no need of arms. 20
so let them proceed, rabid, and enjoy this bright praise,
so long as you behold these things, highest Father. But indeed they complain
that the fields gape open and marvel at the flight of the earth; or will even
their own soil carry those men?' Thus having spoken he was driving the men
with great onset and with a roar; the same fury was upon all to get possession 25
of the spoils and the seized body of the detested Tydeus.

non aliter subtexunt astra cateruae
incestarum auium, longe quibus aura nocentem
aera desertasque tulit sine funere mortes;
illo auidae cum uoce ruunt, sonat arduus aether                30
plausibus, et caelo uolucres cessere minores.
    Fama per Aonium rapido uaga murmure campum
spargitur in turmas (solito pernicior index
cum lugenda refert), donec, cui maxima fando
damna uehit, trepidas lapsa est Polynicis ad aures.                35

not otherwise do the hordes of unclean birds underweave the stars,
for whom the breeze has borne far the noxious airs and the deserted deaths without funeral;
thither, greedy, they rush with cry, the lofty ether resounds                30
with wing-clappings, and the lesser birds have yielded in the sky.
    Rumor across the Aonian plain, with a rapid wandering murmur,
is scattered into the squadrons (an informer more nimble than usual
when he reports things to be lamented), until, to whom in speaking
she carries the greatest losses, she has slipped to the trembling ears of Polynices.                35

deriguit iuuenis lacrimaeque haesere paratae
et cunctata fides: nimium nam cognita uirtus
Oenidae credi letum suadetque uetatque.
sed postquam haud dubio clades auctore reperta est,
nox oculos mentemque rapit; tum sanguine fixo                40
membra simul, simul arma ruunt: madet ardua fletu
iam galea atque ocreae clipeum excepere cadentem.
it maestus genua aegra trahens hastamque sequentem,
uulneribus ceu mille grauis totosque per artus
saucius: absistunt socii monstrantque gementes.                45
tandem ille abiectis, uix quae portauerat, armis
nudus in egregii uacuum iam corpus amici
procidit et tali lacrimas cum uoce profudit:
'hasne tibi, armorum spes o suprema meorum,
Oenide, grates, haec praemia digna rependi,                50

the young man grew rigid, and his tears stuck though ready,
and his faith hesitated: for the too well-known valor
of the son of Oeneus both urges and forbids that his death be believed.
but after the disaster was discovered with no doubtful author,
night snatches his eyes and mind; then, with blood frozen,                40
his limbs at once, at once his arms collapse: the towering helmet is wet with weeping,
and the greaves caught the falling shield.
he goes mourning, dragging his aching knees and his spear following,
heavy as if with a thousand wounds and wounded through all his joints:
his comrades stand aside and, groaning, point the way.                45
at last he, with the weapons—scarcely borne—thrown down,
naked falls upon the now empty body of his illustrious friend,
and with such a voice he poured out tears:
“are these to you, O last hope of my arms,
son of Oeneus, the thanks, are these worthy rewards repaid?”                50

funus ut inuisa Cadmi tellure iaceres
sospite me? nunc exul ego aeternumque fugatus,
quando alius misero ac melior mihi frater ademptus.
nec iam sortitus ueteres regnique nocentis
periurum diadema peto: quo gaudia tanti 55
empta mihi aut sceptrum quod non tua dextera tradet?
ite, uiri, solumque fero me linquite fratri:
nil opus arma ultra temptare et perdere mortes;
ite, precor; quid iam dabitis mihi denique maius?

that you should lie as a funeral on the hateful land of Cadmus
while I am safe? Now I am an exile and forever made a fugitive,
since from wretched me a brother, another and better, has been taken away.
nor now, having cast lots for our ancestral shares and the baneful kingdom,
do I seek the perjured diadem: for what joys so great 55
are bought for me, or a scepter which your right hand will not hand over?
go, men, and leave me alone to my brother: I go alone;
there is no need to try arms further and to waste deaths;
go, I pray; what now at last will you give me greater?

Tydea consumpsi! quanam hoc ego morte piabo? 60
o socer, o Argi! et primae bona iurgia noctis
alternaeque manus et, longi pignus amoris,
ira breuis!

I have destroyed Tydeus! By what death shall I atone for this? 60
O father-in-law, O Argives! and the good quarrels of the first night
and hands in turn, and—pledge of long love—brief ire!

non me ense tuo tunc, maxime Tydeu,
(et poteras) nostri mactatum in limine Adrasti!
quin etiam Thebas me propter et impia fratris 65

not me then by your sword, greatest Tydeus,
(and you could have) immolated on the threshold of our Adrastus!
nay even Thebes on my account and the impieties of my brother 65

tecta libens, unde haud alius remeasset, adisti,
ceu tibimet sceptra et proprios laturus honores.
iam Telamona pium, iam Thesea fama tacebat.
qualis et ecce iaces!

you approached the halls willingly, whence no other would have returned,
as though you were going to bear for yourself scepters and your own honors.
already fame was silent about pious Telamon, already about Theseus.
and behold how you lie!

quae primum uulnera mirer?
quis tuus hic, quis ab hoste cruor? quae te agmina quiue 70
innumeri strauere globi?

Which wounds should I marvel at first?
What blood here is yours, what from the foe? What battle-lines or what 70
innumerable masses have laid you low?

(num fallor?) et ipse
inuidit pater et tota Mars impulit hasta.'
sic ait, et maerens etiamnum lubrica tabo
ora uiri terget lacrimis dextraque reponit.
'tune meos hostes hucusque exosus, et ultra                75
sospes ego?' exuerat uagina turbidus ensem
aptabatque neci: comites tenuere, socerque
castigat bellique uices ac fata reuoluens
solatur tumidum, longeque a corpore caro
paulatim, unde dolor letique animosa uoluntas,                 80
amouet ac tacite ferrum inter uerba reponit.
ducitur amisso qualis consorte laborum
deserit inceptum media inter iugera sulcum
taurus iners colloque iugum deforme remisso
parte trahit, partem lacrimans sustentat arator.                85

'(am I deceived?) even the Father himself envied, and Mars drove with his whole spear.'
thus he speaks, and, mourning still, he wipes the man’s face, slippery with gore, with tears, and with his right hand sets it back.
'is it you, hating my enemies thus far—and I safe beyond? 75
turbulent, he had stripped his sword from the scabbard and was fitting it for death: his comrades held him, and his father-in-law rebukes him and, revolving the turns of war and the fates, consoles the over-wrought one, and little by little he removes him far from the dear body—whence pain and the spirited will for death—and silently, amid his words, he puts back the steel.
he is led away like a bull who, his partner in labors lost, abandons the furrow begun in the midst of the acres, sluggish, and with his neck relaxed, the misshapen yoke he drags in part, and in part the plowman, weeping, supports. 85

    ecce autem hortatus Eteoclis et arma secuti,
lecta manus, iuuenes, quos nec Tritonia bello,
nec prope conlata spreuisset cuspide Mauors,
aduentant; contra, conlecta ut pectora parmae
fixerat atque hastam longe protenderat, haeret                90
arduus Hippomedon: ceu fluctibus obuia rupes,
cui neque de caelo metus et fracta aequora cedunt,
stat cunctis inmota minis, fugit ipse rigentem
pontus et ex alto miserae nouere carinae.
tunc prior Aonides (ualidam simul eligit hastam):                95
'non pudet hos manes, haec infamantia bellum
funera dis coram et caelo inspectante tueri?
scilicet egregius sudor memorandaque uirtus
hanc tumulare feram, ne non maerentibus Argos
exequiis lacrimandus eat mollique feretro                100

    lo, however, at the exhortation of Eteocles and having followed to arms,
a chosen band approaches, youths whom neither Tritonia in war
nor Mars with spear brought near would have scorned;
over against them, as he had gathered his breast within the shield
and had planted and far outstretched his spear, lofty Hippomedon stands fast,                90
like a rock facing the waves,
which has no fear from the sky, and the shattered waters give way;
it stands unmoved by all threats; the sea itself flees the rigid
crag, and from the deep the wretched hulls have come to know it.
then first the Aonides (and at the same time he chooses a sturdy spear):                95
‘are you not ashamed to behold these shades, these funerals that defame war,
before the gods and with heaven looking on?
surely distinguished sweat and memorable virtue
are to bury this wild beast, so that he may not fail to go to Argos
with mournful obsequies, to be wept over, and on a soft bier.’                100

infandam eiectans saniem! dimittite curam.
nullae illum uolucres, nulla impia monstra nec ipse,
si demus, pius ignis edat.' nec plura, sed ingens
intorquet iaculum, duro quod in aere moratum
transmissumque tamen clipei stetit orbe secundo. 105
inde Pheres acerque Lycus; sed cassa Pheretis
hasta redit, Lycus excelso terrore comantem
perstringit galeam: conuulsae cuspide longe
diffugere iubae patuitque ingloria cassis.

belching unspeakable gore! Dismiss your care.
no birds of prey, no impious monsters, nor even,
if we permit it, shall the dutiful fire devour him.' No more; but a huge
javelin he hurls, which, delayed in the hard bronze
and yet transmitted, stuck in the shield’s second orb. 105
then Pheres and keen Lycus; but the empty
spear of Pheres returns, Lycus with lofty terror grazes
the hair-crested helmet: the plumes, torn by the point,
flew apart far, and the helmet lay bare, inglorious.

ipse nec ire retro, nec in obuia concitus arma 110
exilit, inque eadem sese uestigia semper
obuersus cunctis profert recipitque, nec umquam
longius indulget dextrae motusque per omnes
corpus amat, corpus seruans circumque supraque
uertitur. imbellem non sic amplexa iuuencum 115

he himself neither goes back, nor, roused, leaps out into opposing arms 110
and into the same footprints he always, facing all, puts himself forth and withdraws,
and never indulges his right hand farther, and through all motions
he keeps to the body, guarding the body, and he turns around it and above it.
not thus, clasping the unwarlike young bullock, 115

infestante lupo tunc primum feta tuetur
mater et ancipiti circumfert cornua gyro;
ipsa nihil metuens sexusque oblita minoris
spumat et ingentes imitatur femina tauros.
tandem intermissa iaculantum nube potestas                120
reddere tela fuit; iamque et Sicyonius Alcon
uenerat auxilio, Pisaeaque praepetis Idae
turma subit cuneumque replent. his laetus in hostes
Lernaeam iacit ipse trabem; uolat illa sagittis
aequa fuga mediumque nihil cunctata Politen                125
transabit et iuncti clipeum cauat improba Mopsi.
Phocea tum Cydona Tanagraeumque Phalantum
atque Erycem, hunc retro conuersum et tela petentem,
dum spes nulla necis, crinito a uertice figit:
faucibus ille cauis hastam non ore receptam                130

with the wolf harassing, then for the first time the dam protects her young
and carries about her horns in a two-edged circle; she herself, fearing nothing
and forgetful of the lesser sex, foams and the female imitates huge bulls.
at length, with the power of the cloud of hurlers intermitted, there was the chance
to give back the missiles; and now too Sicyonian Alcon had come as help,120
and the troop from Pisa of swift Ida advances and they fill the wedge.
glad at these allies he himself hurls the Lernaean beam against the foes; it flies
with a flight equal to arrows and, delaying not at all, will pass through Polites
in the middle and, shameless, hollows the shield of his joined comrade Mopsus.125
then he pierces the Phocean Cydon and the Tanagraean Phalantus
and Eryx—this one turned backward and seeking missiles, while there was no hope of death—
through the hair-covered crown: that man, in his hollow jaws, the spear not received by the mouth130

miratur moriens, pariterque et murmure plenus
sanguis et expulsi salierunt cuspide dentes.
ausus erat furto dextram iniectare Leonteus,
pone uiros atque arma latens, positumque trahebat
prenso crine caput: uidit, quamquam undique crebrae,                135
Hippomedon, ante ora minae, saeuoque proteruam
abstulit ense manum; simul increpat: 'hanc tibi Tydeus,
Tydeus ipse rapit; post et confecta uirorum
fata time magnosque miser fuge tangere manes!'
ter Cadmea phalanx toruum abduxere cadauer,                140
ter retrahunt Danai: Siculi uelut anxia puppis
seditione maris nequiquam obstante magistro
errat et auerso redit in uestigia uelo.
    non ibi Sidoniae ualuissent pellere coepto
Hippomedonta manus, non illum impacta mouerent                145

he marvels as he is dying, and both blood, full with a murmur,
and teeth, driven out by the spearpoint, sprang forth.
Leonteus had dared by stealth to thrust in his right hand,
hiding behind men and arms, and he was dragging the head set down,
by the seized hair: Hippomedon saw, although on every side thick                135
threats were before his face, and with his savage sword he took off
the overbold hand; at the same time he rebukes: 'this Tydeus,
Tydeus himself, snatches from you; thereafter, when the fates of men
are accomplished, be afraid, wretch, and flee to touch the mighty shades!'
thrice the Cadmean phalanx drew away the grim cadaver,                140
thrice the Danaans drag it back: as a Sicilian anxious ship
in a sedition of the sea, with the helmsman opposing in vain,
wanders and with sail turned away returns into its tracks.
    not there would Sidonian hands have had the strength to drive from his begun task
Hippomedon, nor would hurled missiles move him.                145

tormenta oppositum, formidatique superbis
turribus impulsus temptato umbone redissent.
sed memor Elysii regis noxasque recensens
Tydeos in medios astu subit impia campos
Tisiphone: sensere acies subitusque cucurrit 150
sudor equis sudorque uiris, quamquam ore remisso
Inachium fingebat Halyn, nusquam impius ignis
uerberaque, et iussi tenuere silentia crines.
arma gerit iuxtaque feri latus Hippomedontis
blanda genas uocemque uenit, tamen ille loquentis 155
extimuit uultus admiraturque timorem.

engines set in opposition, and the impacts of haughty towers, dreaded, would have gone back with the boss tried.
but mindful of the Elysian king and recounting the crimes of Tydeus, impious Tisiphone by craft enters into the midst of the fields;
the battle-lines felt it and sudden sweat ran—sweat to the horses and to the men—although with face relaxed she was feigning the Inachian Halys;
nowhere the impious fire and lashes, and her tresses, commanded, kept silence.
she bears arms and comes close beside the flank of fierce Hippomedon,
with coaxing cheeks and voice; yet he shuddered at the speaker’s face and marvels at the fear.

illa autem lacrimans, 'tu nunc' ait 'inclute, frustra
exanimes socios inhumataque corpora Graium
(scilicet is nobis metus, aut iam cura sepulcri?)
protegis; ipse manu Tyria tibi captus Adrastus 160

but she, weeping, says, 'You now, renowned one, in vain
protect lifeless comrades and the unburied bodies of the Greeks
(surely that is our fear, or now a care for a sepulcher?)
Adrastus himself has been captured for you by a Tyrian hand' 160

raptatur, teque ante alios, te uoce manuque
inuocat; heu qualem lapsare in sanguine uidi,
exutum canos lacero diademate crines!
nec procul hinc, aduerte oculos: ubi plurimus ille
puluis, ubi ille globus.' paulum stetit anxius heros 165
librabatque metus; premit aspera uirgo: 'quid haeres?
imus?

he is dragged away, and you before others, you with voice and hand
he invokes; alas, in what state I saw him slipping in blood,
his hoary hairs stripped of the diadem, torn!
nor far from here, turn your eyes: where that most abundant
dust is, where that mass.' for a little the anxious hero stood 165
and was balancing his fears; the harsh maiden presses: 'why do you hesitate?
shall we go?

an hi retinent manes, et uilior ille
qui superest?' miserum sociis opus et sua mandat
proelia et unanimi uadit desertor amici,
respiciens tamen et reuocent si forte paratus. 170
inde legens turbata trucis uestigia diuae
huc illuc frustra ruit auius, impia donec
Eumenis ex oculis reiecta caerula parma
fugit et innumeri galeam rupere cerastae.
aspicit infelix discussa nube quietos 175

Or do the Manes retain these, and is he who survives the viler?
he, wretched, consigns the task to his comrades and his own battles,
and goes a deserter of a like-souled friend,
yet looking back and ready, if by chance they should recall him. 170
thence tracing the troubled footprints of the grim goddess
he rushes here and there astray in vain, until the impious
Eumenis flees from his eyes, her cerulean buckler cast back,
and innumerable horned serpents shatter his helmet.
unhappy, he beholds, the cloud scattered, the quiet ones. 175

Inachidas currumque nihil metuentis Adrasti.
    et Tyrii iam corpus habent, iam gaudia magnae
testantur uoces, uictorque ululatus aderrat
auribus occultoque ferit praecordia luctu.
ducitur hostili (pro dura potentia fati!)                180
Tydeus ille solo, modo cui Thebana sequenti
agmina, siue gradus seu frena effunderet, ingens
limes utrimque datus; nusquam arma, manusque quiescunt;
nulla uiri feritas: iuuat ora rigentia leto
et formidatos impune lacessere uultus.                185
hic amor, hoc una timidi fortesque sequuntur
nobilitare manus, infectaque sanguine tela
coniugibus seruant paruisque ostendere natis.

The Inachids and the chariot of fear-nothing Adrastus.
    and already the Tyrians have the body, already loud
voices testify to their joys, and a victor’s ululation hovers near
their ears and strikes their inmost breast with hidden grief.
he, Tydeus, is led upon hostile soil (ah, the hard potency of fate!)                180
he to whom just now, with Theban columns following,
whether he poured forth his strides or his reins, a vast
border was granted on either side; nowhere do arms and hands rest;
no ferocity of the man: it pleases them to goad with impunity the faces
stiff in death and once feared.                185
this is the desire, this alone both the timid and the brave pursue,
to ennoble their hands, and they keep their weapons stained with blood
to show them to their wives and to their small-born children.

sic ubi Maura diu populatum rura leonem,
quem propter clausique greges uigilantque magistri, 190

so when a lion, long ravaging the Mauretanian fields,
on account of whom both the flocks are shut in and the masters keep vigil, 190

pastorum lassae debellauere cohortes:
gaudet ager, magno subeunt clamore coloni,
praecerpuntque iubas inmaniaque ora recludunt
damnaque commemorant, seu iam sub culmine fixus
excubat, antiquo seu pendet gloria luco.                195
    at ferus Hippomedon quamquam iam sentit inane
auxilium et seram rapto pro corpore pugnam,
it tamen et caecum rotat inreuocabilis ensem,
uix socios hostesque, nihil dum tardet euntem,
secernens; sed caede noua iam lubrica tellus                200
armaque seminecesque uiri currusque soluti
impediunt laeuumque femur, quod cuspide fixum
regis Echionii, sed dissimulauerat ardens,
siue ibi nescierat. maestum uidet Hoplea tandem;
Tydeos hic magni fidus comes et modo frustra                205

the weary cohorts of shepherds have brought the war to an end:
the field rejoices, the farmers come up with great clamor,
and they crop the mane and pry open the immense jaws
and recount the losses, whether now, fixed beneath the rooftop,
he keeps watch, or else glory hangs in an ancient grove.                195
    but savage Hippomedon, although now he feels aid to be vain
and the battle late for a body marked for rapine,
goes nonetheless and, irrevocable, whirls a blind sword,
scarcely separating comrades and foes, while nothing delays him as he goes;
but the ground, now slippery with fresh slaughter,                200
and weapons and half-dead men and loosened chariots
impede him, and his left thigh—pierced by the spear-point
of the Echionian king—yet, burning, he had dissembled it,
or perhaps had not known it there. Hopleus at last sees him, mournful;
this man, the faithful companion of great Tydeus, and just now in vain                205

armiger alipedem prona ceruice tenebat
fatorum ignarum domini solumque frementem
quod uacet inque acies audentior ille pedestres.
hunc aspernantem tumido noua pondera tergo
(unam quippe manum domitis expertus ab annis) 210
corripit adfaturque: 'quid o noua fata recusas,
infelix sonipes? nusquam tibi dulce superbi
regis onus; non iam Aetolo satiabere campo
gaudentemque iubam per stagna Acheloia solues.

the armor-bearer held the swift-footed steed with neck bowed forward
ignorant of his lord’s fates, and neighing only because he stood idle,
while he himself was more daring to go on foot into the infantry battle lines.
him, spurning new weights for his swelling back,
(for, tamed by years, he had experienced only one hand) 210
he seizes and addresses: ‘why, O, do you refuse new fates,
unhappy soniped? Nowhere will the burden of your proud king be sweet to you;
no longer will you be sated on the Aetolian plain,
nor will you loosen your rejoicing mane through the Acheloian pools.’

quod superest, caros, i, saltem ulciscere manes 215
aut sequere; extorrem neu tu quoque laeseris umbram
captiuus tumidumque equitem post Tydea portes.'
audisse accensumque putes: hoc fulmine raptum
abstulit et similes minus indignatur habenas.
semifer aeria talis Centaurus ab Ossa 220

what remains, go, at least avenge the dear shades 215
or follow; do not you also wound the exiled shade
by being a captive and carry a swelling horseman after Tydeus.'
you would think him to have heard and been incensed: by this thunderbolt snatched up
he bore him off, and is less indignant at similar reins.
such a half-beast Centaur from airy Ossa 220

desilit in ualles: ipsum nemora alta tremescunt,
campus equum. trepidi cursu glomerantur anhelo
Labdacidae, premit ille super, necopinaque ferro
colla metens linquit truncos post terga cadentes.
uentum erat ad fluuium; solito tunc plenior alueo 225
(signa mali) magna se mole Ismenos agebat.

he leaps down into the valleys: the high groves themselves tremble,
the plain at the horse. The Labdacids, tremulous, are massed in panting course,
he presses upon them from above, and, mowing unexpected necks with iron,
he leaves trunks falling behind his back.
they had come to the river; then fuller than its wonted channel 225
(signs of ill) Ismenus was driving itself with great mass.

illa breuis requies, illo timida agmina lassam
de campis egere fugam; stupet hospita belli
unda uiros claraque armorum incenditur umbra.
insiluere uadis, magnoque fragore solutus 230
agger et aduersae latuerunt puluere ripae.
ille quoque hostiles saltu maiore per undas
inruit attonitis (longum dimittere habenas)
sicut erat, tantum uiridi defixa parumper
caespite populeo commendat spicula trunco. 235

that was a brief respite; by it the timorous columns drove their weary flight
from the fields; the wave, a stranger to war, stands amazed at the men
and is enflamed by the bright shadow of arms.
they leapt into the shallows, and with great crash the embankment was loosed 230
and the opposite banks lay hidden in dust.
he too with a greater leap through the hostile waves
rushed upon the astonished (to let the reins go would take too long),
just as he was; only, his darts fixed for a little while in the green
poplar sod, he entrusts to a trunk his little spears. 235

tunc uero exanimes tradunt rapientibus ultro
arma uadis: alii demissa casside, quantum
tendere conatus animae ualuere sub undis,
turpe latent; multi fluuium transmittere nando
adgressi, sed uincla tenent laterique repugnat                240
balteus et madidus deducit pectora thorax.
qualis caeruleis tumido sub gurgite terror
piscibus, arcani quotiens deuexa profundi
scrutantem delphina uident; fugit omnis in imos
turba lacus uiridesque metu stipantur in algas;                245
nec prius emersi quam summa per aequora flexus
emicet et uisis malit certare carinis:
talis agit sparsos, mediisque in fluctibus heros
frena manu pariter, pariter regit arma, pedumque
remigio sustentat equum; consuetaque campo                250

then indeed, breathless, they of their own accord hand over their arms to the snatching shallows:
others, with helmet lowered, hide shamefully beneath the waves, so far as their efforts to stretch their breath have availed under the waters;
many, having attempted to cross the river by swimming, but straps hold them, and the baldric resists their side,                240
and the soaked cuirass draws down their chests.
such terror beneath the swollen gulf to the cerulean fishes, whenever they see the dolphin, slanting down from the secret deep, searching;
the whole throng flees into the lowest pools and, from fear, are packed into the green seaweeds;                245
nor do they surface before it, curved, shoots forth over the topmost waters and prefers to vie with the seen keels:
so does the hero drive the scattered [foes], and in the midst of the waves he at once with his hand controls the reins, at once directs his arms, and with the oarage of his feet sustains his horse; and the things accustomed on the field                250

fluctuat et mersas leuis ungula quaerit harenas.
sternit Iona Chromis, Chromin Antiphos, Antiphon Hypseus,
Hypseus Astyagen euasurumque relicto
amne Linum, ni fata uetent et stamine primo
ablatum tellure mori. premit agmina Thebes 255
Hippomedon, turbat Danaos Asopius Hypseus:
amnis utrumque timet, crasso uada mutat uterque
sanguine, et e fluuio neutri fatale reuerti.

it surges and the light hoof searches for the sunken sands.
Chromis lays low Ion, Antiphos lays low Chromis, Hypseus lays low Antiphon,
Hypseus [slays] Astyages and Linus, who would have escaped with the river left behind,
had not the Fates forbid, and, snatched from the earth at his very first thread, to die. Hippomedon of Thebes presses the battle-lines 255
and the Asopian Hypseus throws the Danaans into confusion:
the river fears both; each changes the shallows with thick blood, and from the stream it is fated for neither to return.

iam laceri pronis uoluuntur cursibus artus
oraque et abscisae redeunt in pectora dextrae, 260
spicula iam clipeosque leues arcusque remissos
unda uehit, galeasque uetant descendere cristae:
summa uagis late sternuntur flumina telis,
ima uiris; illic luctantur corpora leto,
efflantesque animas retro premit obuius amnis. 265

now the torn limbs are rolled along by the sloping currents,
and faces and severed right hands are driven back into the breasts; 260
now the wave carries darts and light shields and unstrung bows,
and crests forbid the helmets to descend;
far and wide the surfaces of the rivers are strewn with wandering weapons,
the depths with men; there bodies wrestle with death,
and the opposing river presses them backward as they breathe out their souls. 265

    flumineam rapiente uado puer Argipus ulmum
prenderat, insignes umeros ferus ense Menoeceus
amputat; ille cadens, nondum conamine adempto,
truncus in excelsis spectat sua bracchia ramis.
Hypseos hasta Sagen ingenti uulnere mersit,                270
ille manet fundo, rediit pro corpore sanguis.
desiluit ripis fratrem rapturus Agenor,
heu miser et tenuit, sed saucius ille leuantem
degrauat amplexu: poterat resolutus Agenor
emersisse uadis, piguit sine fratre reuerti.                275
surgentem dextra Capetum uulnusque minantem
sorbebat rapidus nodato gurgite uertex;
iam uultu, iam crine latet, iam dextera nusquam,
ultimus abruptas ensis descendit in undas.

    with the river snatching at the ford the boy Argipus had grasped an elm;
fierce Menoeceus cuts off his conspicuous shoulders with a sword;
he, falling, not yet deprived of striving,
a trunk, on the lofty branches gazes at his own arms.
Hypseus’s spear plunged Sagen with a huge wound,                270
he remains on the bottom; in place of the body, blood came back up.
Agenor leapt from the banks to snatch his brother,
alas, poor wretch, and he held him; but he, wounded, burdens the lifter
with his embrace: loosed, Agenor could have re-emerged from the shallows,
it irked him to return without his brother.                275
the swift vortex, with a knotted whirlpool, was swallowing Capetus as he rose and threatened a wound with his right hand;
now with face, now with hair he is hidden, now the right hand nowhere,
last the sword descends into the broken waves.

mille modis leti miseros mors una fatigat. 280

in a thousand modes of death one death wearies the wretched. 280

induit a tergo Mycalesia cuspis Agyrten;
respexit: nusquam auctor erat, sed concita tractu
gurgitis effugiens inuenerat hasta cruorem.
    figitur et ualidos sonipes Aetolus in armos
exiluitque alte ui mortis et aera pendens                285
uerberat; haud tamen est turbatus fulmine ductor,
sed miseratur equum magnoque ex uulnere telum
exuit ipse gemens et sponte remisit habenas.
inde pedes repetit pugnas gressuque manuque
certior, et segnem Nomium fortemque Mimanta                290
Thisbaeumque Lichan Anthedoniumque Lycetum
continuat ferro geminisque e fratribus unum
Thespiaden; eadem poscenti fata Panemo:
'uiue superstes' ait 'diraeque ad moenia Thebes
solus abi miseros non decepture parentes.                295

a Mycalessian spear-point lodged in Agyrtes from behind;
he looked back: the author was nowhere, but the spear, hastened by the pull
of the whirlpool as it fled, had found blood.
    and the Aetolian hoof-thunderer is fixed in his sturdy shoulders,
and he leapt high by the force of death and, hanging in the air,                285
he lashes the air; yet the leader is not troubled by the thunderbolt,
but pities the horse, and from the great wound he himself, groaning,
draws out the spear and of his own accord lets loose the reins.
thence on foot he resumes the battles, more resolute in step and hand,
and he strings together with iron the sluggish Nomius and the brave Mimantus,                290
and Lichas of Thisbae and Lycetus of Anthedon,
and, from the twin brothers, one, a Thespiad; and to Panemus, who was asking
for the same fates: “live as a survivor,” he says, “and to the walls of dire Thebes
go alone, not about to deceive your wretched parents.”                295

di bene quod pugnas rapidum deiecit in amnem
sanguinea Bellona manu: trahit unda timentes
gurgite gentili, nuda nec flebilis umbra
stridebit uestros Tydeus inhumatus ad ignes;
ibitis aequoreis crudelia pabula monstris,                300
illum terra uehit suaque in primordia soluet.'
sic premit aduersos et acerbat uulnera dictis;
ac nunc ense furit, nunc tela natantia captans
ingerit: innuptae comitem Therona Dianae,
ruricolamque Gyan cum fluctiuago Ergino,                305
intonsumque Hersen, contemptoremque profundi
Crethea nimbosam qui saepe Caphereos arcem
Euboicasque hiemes parua transfugerat alno++
quid non fata queant? traiectus pectora ferro
uoluitur in fluctus, heu cuius naufragus undae!                310

Good gods, that Bellona with a sanguine hand cast the battle-swift into the river; the wave draws the trembling in its kindred whirlpool, nor will Tydeus, unburied, as a naked and lamentable shade, shriek at your fires; you will go as cruel fodder for sea-monsters,                300
him the earth bears and will dissolve into his own beginnings.' Thus he presses his adversaries and aggravates the wounds with words; and now he rages with the sword, now, catching floating missiles, he hurls them in: Theron, companion of the unwed Diana, and the country-dweller Gyas with wave-wandering Erginus,                305
and unshorn Hersen, and Cretheus, scorner of the deep, who had often with a small alder-boat slipped past the cloud-stormy Capherean citadel and the Euboean winters++—what cannot the Fates achieve?—his breast pierced by iron, he rolls into the waves, alas, a castaway of what a wave!                310

te quoque sublimi tranantem flumina curru,
dum socios, Pharsale, petis, resupinat ademptis
Dorica cuspis equis; illos uiolentia saeui
gurgitis infelixque iugi concordia mergit.
    nunc age, quis tumidis magnum expugnauerit undis                315
Hippomedonta labor, cur ipse excitus in arma
Ismenos, doctae nosse indulgete sorores:
uestrum opus ire retro et senium depellere famae.
gaudebat Fauno nymphaque Ismenide natus
maternis bellare tener Crenaeus in undis,                320
Crenaeus, cui prima dies in gurgite fido
et natale uadum et uirides cunabula ripae.
ergo ratus nihil Elysias ibi posse Sorores,
laetus adulantem nunc hoc, nunc margine ab illo
transit auum, leuat unda gradus, seu defluus ille,                325

you too, while you were ferrying the rivers in a lofty chariot,
while you seek your allies, Pharsalus, a Doric spear flips you backward, your
horses taken away; them the violence of the savage
whirlpool and the ill-fated concord of the yoke drowns.
    come now, by what toil the great Hippomedon was stormed by the swollen waves,                315
why Ismenus himself was roused to arms—grant me to know, learned
sisters: yours is the work to go backward and drive the senility from Fame.
the tender Crenaeus, born of Faunus and the Ismenian nymph,
rejoiced to war in his mother’s waters—Crenaeus, for whom the first day
was in the trusty eddy, and the natal ford, and the green cradles of the banks;                320
Crenaeus, for whom the first day was in the trusty eddy
and the natal ford and the green cradles of the banks.
therefore, thinking that the Elysian Sisters could do nothing there,
joyous he passes his flattering grandsire now on this, now from that margin;
the wave lightens his steps, whether that stream is outflowing,                325

siue obliquus eat; nec cum subit obuius ullas
stagna dedere moras pariterque reuertitur amnis.
non Anthedonii tegit hospitis inguina pontus
blandior, aestiuo nec se magis aequore Triton
exerit, aut carae festinus ad oscula matris 330
cum remeat tardumque ferit delphina Palaemon.
arma decent umeros, clipeusque insignis et auro
lucidus Aoniae caelatur origine gentis.

whether it go aslant; nor, when he rises to meet him, did the pools grant any delays, and the river returns in step.
not more caressingly does the sea cover the loins of the Anthedonian guest,
nor does Triton display himself more upon the summer sea,
or Palaemon the Dolphin, hastening to his dear mother’s kisses when he comes back, and he strikes the sluggish flood. 330
arms befit his shoulders, and a shield, notable and lucid with gold,
is chased with the origin of the Aonian race.

Sidonis hic blandi per candida terga iuuenci,
iam secura maris, teneris iam cornua palmis 335
non tenet, extremis adludunt aequora plantis;
ire putes clipeo fluctusque secare iuuencum.
adiuuat unda fidem pelago, nec discolor amnis.
tunc audax pariter telis et uoce proterua
Hippomedonta petit: 'non haec fecunda ueneno 340

Here the Sidonian girl over the white back of the coaxing young bull,
now safe from the sea, now no longer holds the horns with her tender palms 335
the waters play around the tips of her soles;
you would think the young bull to go on a shield and to cleave the billows.
the wave aids belief in the open sea, nor is the river unlike in color.
then, bold alike in weapons and with a saucy voice,
he makes for Hippomedon: “these are not fruitful in venom 340

Lerna, nec Herculeis haustae serpentibus undae:
sacrum amnem, sacrum (et miser experiere!) deumque
altrices inrumpis aquas.' nihil ille, sed ibat
comminus; opposuit cumulo se densior amnis
tardauitque manum; uulnus tamen illa retentum                345
pertulit atque animae tota in penetralia sedit.
horruit unda nefas, siluae fleuistis utraeque,
et grauiora cauae sonuerunt murmura ripae.
ultimus ille sonus moribundo emersit ab ore,
'mater!', in hanc miseri ceciderunt flumina uocem.                350
    at genetrix coetu glaucarum cincta sororum
protinus icta malo uitrea de ualle solutis
exiluit furibunda comis, ac uerbere crebro
oraque pectoraque et uiridem scidit horrida uestem.

Lerna, nor waters quaffed by the Herculean serpents:
a sacred river, a sacred (and wretch, you will experience it!) god, and you burst into the nurturing waters.' He said nothing, but went
at close quarters; the river, denser, opposed itself in a heap
and delayed his hand; yet that wound, though held back,                345
he bore, and it settled wholly into the penetralia of his soul.
the wave shuddered at the impiety, and you both forests wept,
and the hollow banks sounded weightier murmurs.
that last sound emerged from his dying mouth,
‘mother!’, upon this word the streams of the wretch fell.                350
    but the mother, girt by a gathering of her glaucous sisters,
straightway, smitten by the evil, from her glassy vale with hair loosened
leapt forth frenzied, and with frequent blows
she tore her face and breast and her horrid green garment.

utque erupit aquis iterumque iterumque trementi 355

and when she burst from the waters, trembling again and again 355

ingeminat 'Crenaee' sono: nusquam ille, sed index
desuper (a miserae nimium noscenda parenti!)
parma natat; iacet ipse procul, qua mixta supremum
Ismenon primi mutant confinia ponti.
fluctiuagam sic saepe domum madidosque penates 360
Alcyone deserta gemit, cum pignora saeuus
Auster et algentes rapuit Thetis inuida nidos.
mergitur orba iterum, penitusque occulta sub undis
limite non uno, liquidum qua subter eunti
lucet iter, miseri nequiquam funera nati 365
uestigat plangitque tamen; saepe horridus amnis
obstat, et obducto caligant sanguine uisus.

she redoubles the sound, “Crenaee”: he is nowhere, but a telltale from above (too well to be recognized by the wretched parent!)—a shield—floats; he himself lies far off, where, once mingled, the confines transform the farthest Ismenus into the first sea.
thus Alcyone, deserted, often laments her wave-wandering home and dripping Penates, when cruel Auster and envious Thetis have snatched away the pledges and the gelid nests. 360
bereft, she is plunged again, and hidden deep beneath the waves along more than one track, where for one going beneath the limpid path shines, she nonetheless tracks in vain the funeral of her miserable son and laments; often the rough river bars the way, and her sight grows dark, shrouded with blood. 365

illa tamen praeceps in tela offendit et enses
scrutaturque manu galeas et prona reclinat
corpora; nec ponto summota intrabat amaram 370

yet she, headlong, runs into missiles and swords,
and with her hand she scrutinizes helmets and reclines back
prone bodies; nor, removed from the sea, did she enter the bitter 370

Dorida, possessum donec iam fluctibus altis
Nereidum miserata cohors ad pectora matris
impulit. illa manu ceu uiuum amplexa reportat
insternitque toris riparum atque umida siccat
mollibus ora comis, atque haec ululatibus addit: 375
'hoc tibi semidei munus tribuere parentes
nec mortalis auus? sic nostro in gurgite regnas?

Doris, until the one possessed by the deep waves
the Nereids’ pitying cohort drove to his mother’s breast.
She, with her hand, as if alive, embraces and bears him back,
and spreads him on the couches of the banks and dries his wet face
with her soft hair, and she adds these things with ululations: 375
“Is this the gift your demigod parents have bestowed on you,
and a grandsire not mortal? Is it thus you reign in our whirlpool?”

mitior heu misero discors alienaque tellus,
mitior unda maris, quae iuxta flumina corpus
rettulit et miseram uisa expectasse parentem. 380
hine mei uultus? haec torui lumina patris?
hi crines undantis aui?

kinder, alas, to the wretch, the discordant and alien land,
kinder the wave of the sea, which near the river-banks
carried back the body and seemed to have awaited the wretched parent. 380
are these my features? are these the grim eyes of the father?
are these the undulant locks of the grandsire?

tu nobile quondam
undarum nemorumque decus, quo sospite maior
diua et Nympharum longe regina ferebar.
heu ubinam ille frequens modo circa limina matris 385

you, once the noble adornment of the waves and groves,
while you were safe, I was reputed a greater goddess
and by far queen of the Nymphs. alas, where in the world is he, lately so often
around his mother’s thresholds, 385

ambitus orantesque tibi seruire Napaeae?
cur nunc te, melius saeuo mansura profundo,
amplexu misero tumulis, Crenaee, reporto
non mihi? nec tantae pudet heu miseretque ruinae,
dure parens?

the ambits and the Napaeae beseeching to serve you?
why now do I, better destined to abide in the savage deep,
carry you back in a wretched embrace to the tomb-mounds, O Crenaean,
not for myself? and is there no shame—alas—and no pity for so great a ruin,
harsh parent?

quae te alta et ineluctabilis imo                390
condidit amne palus, quo nec tam cruda nepotis
funera nec nostri ualeant perrumpere planctus?
ecce furit iactatque tuo se in gurgite maior
Hippomedon, illum ripaeque undaeque tremescunt,
illius impulsu nostrum bibit unda cruorem:                395
tu piger et trucibus facilis seruire Pelasgis.
ad cineres saltem supremaque iusta tuorum
saeue ueni non hic solum accensure nepotem.'
his miscet planctus multumque indigna cruentat
pectora, caeruleae referunt lamenta sorores:                400

what deep and ineluctable marsh has buried you in the deepest stream,                390
through which neither the so raw funerals of your grandson nor our laments are able to break through?
behold, Hippomedon rages and, the greater, flings himself in your whirlpool; at him both banks and waves tremble,
by his impulsion the wave drinks our gore:                395
you, sluggish and easy to serve the truculent Pelasgians.
to the ashes at least and the final rites of your own
come, cruel one, not here only to set ablaze your grandson.'
with these she mingles her wailings and much she bloodies her breasts at unworthy wrongs,
the cerulean sisters echo the laments:                400

qualiter Isthmiaco nondum Nereida portu
Leucothean planxisse ferunt, dum pectore anhelo
frigidus in matrem saeuum mare respuit infans.
    at pater arcano residens Ismenos in antro,
unde aurae nubesque bibunt atque imbrifer arcus                405
pascitur et Tyrios melior uenit annus in agros,
ut lamenta procul, quamquam obstrepit ipse, nouosque
accepit natae gemitus, leuat aspera musco
colla grauemque gelu crinem, ceciditque soluta
pinus adulta manu dimissaque uoluitur urna.                410
illum per ripas annoso scrupea limo
ora exertantem siluae fluuiique minores
mirantur: tantus tumido de gurgite surgit,
spumosum attollens apicem lapsuque sonoro
pectora caeruleae riuis manantia barbae.                415

just as, at the Isthmian harbor, they say Leucothea, not yet a Nereid,
was lamented, while, with heaving breast,
the cold infant spits back the savage sea at his mother.
    but the father Ismenus, sitting in a secret cave,
whence breezes and clouds drink and the rain-bearing bow is fed,                405
and a better year comes to the Tyrian fields,
as soon as from afar he received the laments—although he himself roars—and the fresh
groans of his daughter, he lifts necks rough with moss
and hair heavy with frost; and a full-grown pine fell,
loosed from his hand, and the urn, let go, rolls away.                410
him, along the banks, as he thrusts out rocky faces crusted with age-old slime,
the woods and the lesser rivers marvel at:
so great he rises from the swollen whirlpool,
lifting a foamy crest, and with sonorous rushing
his breasts and cerulean beard run dripping with rivulets.                415

obuia cognatos gemitus casumque nepotis
Nympharum docet una patrem monstratque cruentum
auctorem dextramque premit: stetit arduus alto
amne, manuque genas et nexa uirentibus uluis
cornua concutiens sic turbidus ore profundo 420
incipit: 'huncne mihi, superum regnator, honorem
quod totiens hospesque tuis et conscius actis
(nec memorare timor) falsa nunc improba fronte
cornua, nunc uetitam currus disiungere Phoeben,
dotalesque rogos deceptaque fulmina uidi 425
praecipuosque alui natorum? an uilis et illis
gratia? ad hunc certe repsit Tirynthius amnem,
hac tibi flagrantem Bromium restinximus unda.

One of the Nymphs, meeting him, informs the father of the kindred laments and the fall of his grandson, and points out the blood-stained perpetrator and restrains his right hand: he stood towering in the deep river, and with his hand shaking his cheeks and his horns bound with green ulvae, thus, troubled, with deep mouth he begins: 420
'Is this to me, ruler of the supernal ones, the honor, because so often both a guest at your rites and privy to your deeds (nor is it a fear to recount), now horns with a shameless false front, now to unyoke the forbidden chariot of Phoebe, and I have seen bridal pyres and deceived thunderbolts, 425
and have I nourished the most special of sons? Or is favor cheap even with those? To this river surely the Tirynthian crept, with this wave for you we quenched Bromius blazing.'

aspice quas fluuio caedes, quae funera portem
continuus telis alioque adopertus aceruo. 430
omne uadum belli series tenet, omnis anhelat
unda nefas, subterque animae supraque recentes
errant et geminas iungunt caligine ripas.
ille ego clamatus sacris ululatibus amnis,
qui molles thyrsos Baccheaque cornua puro 435

look upon what slaughters, what funerals I carry down my river,
continually covered with missiles and with yet another piled mass. 430
a battle-series holds every ford, every wave pants
with abomination; and both below and above fresh souls
wander, and they join the twin banks with gloom.
I am that river cried upon with sacred ululations,
who in my pure [waters] [wash] the soft thyrsi and Bacchic horns. 435

fonte lauare feror, stipatus caedibus artas
in freta quaero uias; non Strymonos impia tanto
stagna cruore natant, non spumifer altius Hebrus
Gradiuo bellante rubet. nec te admonet altrix
unda tuasque manus, iam pridem oblite parentum 440
Liber? an Eous melius pacatur Hydaspes?

I am borne to wash at my fountain, hemmed in by slaughters I seek narrow ways into the straits;
not do the impious pools of the Strymon swim with so much gore, nor does foam-bearing Hebrus blush more deeply with Gradivus warring.
Nor does the nurse wave admonish you and your hands, Liber, long since forgetful of your parents 440
Or is the Eastern Hydaspes better pacified?

at tu, qui tumidus spoliis et sanguine gaudes
insontis pueri, non hoc ex amne potentem
Inachon aut saeuas uictor reuehere Mycenas,
ni mortalis ego et tibi ductus ab aethere sanguis.'                445
    sic ait infrendens et sponte furentibus undis
signa dedit: mittit gelidus montana Cithaeron
auxilia antiquasque niues et pabula brumae
ire iubet; frater tacitas Asopos eunti
conciliat uires et hiulcis flumina uenis                450

but you, who swollen rejoice in the spoils and the blood
of an innocent boy, do not from this river carry back as victor
to powerful Inachus or to savage Mycenae—
unless I am mortal, and your blood is drawn from the aether.'                445
    thus he spoke, gnashing, and he gave the signal, with the waves raging of their own accord:
icy Cithaeron sends mountainous auxiliaries
and bids the ancient snows and the provender of winter
to go; his brother Asopus to him as he goes
adds silent forces and the rivers in gaping veins.                450

suggerit. ipse cauae scrutatur uiscera terrae
stagnaque torpentesque lacus pigrasque paludes
excutit, atque auidos tollens ad sidera uultus
umentes nebulas exhaurit et aera siccat.
iamque super ripas utroque extantior ibat 455
aggere, iam medium modo qui superauerat amnem
Hippomedon, intactus aquis umerosque manusque,
miratur creuisse uadem seseque minorem.

he supplies. he himself probes the hollow entrails of the earth,
and he shakes out the pools and torpid lakes and sluggish marshes,
shakes them off, and, avid, lifting his face to the stars,
he drains the moist mists and dries the air.
and now he was going, more projecting above the banks on either 455
embankment, now Hippomedon, who just now had overcome the mid-stream
with his shoulders and hands untouched by the waters,
marvels that the ford has grown and that he himself is smaller.

hinc atque hinc tumidi fluctus animosaque surgit
tempestas instar pelagi, cum Pliadas haurit                 460
aut nigrum trepidis impingit Oriona nautis.
non secus aequoreo iactat Teumesius amnis
Hippomedonta salo, semperque umbone sinistro
tollitur et clipeum nigrante superuenit aestu
spumeus adsultans fractaque refunditur unda                465
et cumulo maiore redit; nec mole liquenti
contentus carpit putres seruantia ripas
arbusta annosasque trabes eiectaque fundo
saxa rotat. stat pugna impar amnisque uirique,
indignante deo; nec enim dat terga nec ullis                470

On this side and that the swollen billows rise, and a spirited tempest rises
in the likeness of the sea, when it gulps down the Pleiades                 460
or dashes black Orion upon the trembling sailors.
No otherwise does the Teumesian river toss
Hippomedon with the sea-surge, and always upon his left boss
he is lifted, and, foamy, leaping, it overtops the shield with a blackening flood,
the wave, shattered, is poured back and returns with a greater heap;                465
nor, content with the liquid mass,
does it refrain: it tears the rotten thickets that keep the banks,
whirls aged beams and the rocks cast up from the bottom.
The battle stands unequal, of river and of man, with the god indignant;
for he does not turn his back nor to any...                470

frangitur ille minis, uenientesque obuius undas
intrat et obiecta dispellit flumina parma.
stat terra fugiente gradus, et poplite tenso
lubrica saxa tenet, genibusque obnixus et haerens
subruta fallaci seruat uestigia limo,                475
sic etiam increpitans: 'unde haec, Ismene, repente
ira tibi? quoue has traxisti gurgite uires,
imbelli famulate deo solumque cruorem
femineis experte choris, cum Bacchica mugit
buxus et insanae maculant trieterida matres?'                480
dixerat; atque illi sese deus obtulit ultro
turbidus imbre genas et nube natantis harenae,
nec saeuit dictis, trunca sed pectora quercu
ter quater oppositi, quantum ira deusque ualebat,
impulit adsurgens: tandem uestigia flexit                485

he is not broken by threats, and to meet the coming waves
he enters and with his buckler dispels the opposing rivers.
his step stands though the ground flees, and with knee taut
he grips the slippery rocks, and, bracing on his knees and clinging,
he preserves his footprints though undermined by the deceitful slime,                475
thus even chiding: 'whence this sudden ire for you, Ismenus?
or from what whirlpool have you drawn these forces,
serving an unwarlike god and acquainted only with blood
in women’s choruses, when the Bacchic boxwood lows
and the frenzied mothers stain the trieteris?'                480
he had spoken; and to him the god presented himself unbidden,
turbid, with his cheeks wet with rain and with a cloud of swimming sand,
nor does he rage with words, but with a lopped oak
he smote the breast of his opponent three and four times, as much as anger and godhead availed,
rising as he struck: at last he bent his footings.                485

excussumque manu tegimen, conuersaque lente
terga refert. instant undae sequiturque labantem
amnis ouans; nec non saxis et grandine ferri
desuper infestant Tyrii geminoque repellunt
aggere. quid faciat bellis obsessus et undis? 490
nec fuga iam misero, nec magnae copia mortis.

and the covering knocked from his hand, and, turned slowly,
he carries back his back. The waves press on, and the river, exulting,
pursues him as he totters; nor do the Tyrians fail to assail from above
with stones and a hail of iron, and they drive him back with a twin
embankment. What is he to do, besieged by wars and by waves? 490
no escape now for the wretch, nor any ample chance of a great death.

    stabat gramineae producta crepidine ripae
undarum ac terrae dubio, sed amicior undis,
fraxinus ingentique uadum possederat umbra.
huius opem (nam qua terras inuaderet?) unca                495
arripuit dextra: nec pertulit illa trahentem,
sed maiore super, quam stabat, pondere uicta
soluitur et, qua stagna subit radice quibusque
arentem mordebat humum dimissa, superne
iniecit sese trepido ripamque, nec ultra                500

    there stood, at the grassy ledge of the bank,
at the doubtful border of waves and land, but friendlier to the waves,
an ash, and with its huge shade it had possessed the ford.
the aid of this (for by what way might he invade the lands?) with his hooked                495
right hand he seized; but it did not endure the one dragging,
rather, conquered by a greater weight above than that on which it stood,
it is loosed, and where with its root it goes beneath the pools, and with which,
let down, it was biting the arid ground, from above
it hurled itself upon the trembling man and the bank, and no further                500

passa uirum subitae uallauit ponte ruinae.
huc undae coeunt, et ineluctabile caeno
uerticibusque cauis sidit crescitque barathrum.
iamque umeros, iam colla ducis sinuosa uorago
circumit: hic demum uictus suprema fateri 505
exclamat: 'fluuione (pudet!), Mars inclute, merges
hanc animam, segnesque lacus et stagna subibo
ceu pecoris custos, subiti torrentis iniquis
interceptus aquis?

not allowing the man further, she walled him in with a bridge of sudden ruin.
hither the waves coalesce, and an ineluctable abyss sinks down and grows in the mud and in hollow vortices.
and now the sinuous whirlpool encircles the leader’s shoulders, now his neck:
here at last, conquered, to confess his last things, he cries out: 505
‘by a river-flood (I am ashamed!), renowned Mars, will you drown
this soul, and shall I go down to sluggish lakes and pools
like a shepherd of cattle, intercepted by the unjust waters
of a sudden torrent?’

adeone occumbere ferro
non merui?' tandem precibus commota Tonantem 510
Iuno subit: 'quonam miseros, sator inclute diuum,
Inachidas, quonam usque premes? iam Pallas et odit
Tydea, iam rapto tacuerunt augure Delphi:
en meus Hippomedon, cui gentis origo Mycenae
Argolicique lares numenque ante omnia Iuno 515

“Had I so deserved to fall by iron?” At last, moved by prayers, Juno approaches the Thunderer: 510
“To what end, illustrious begetter of the gods, will you press the wretched Inachids, to what end, how far? Already Pallas too hates Tydeus; already Delphi have fallen silent, the augur having been snatched away. Look—my Hippomedon, whose lineage takes its origin from Mycenae and the Argolic hearths, and whose numen before all is Juno— 515

(sic ego fida meis?), pelagi crudelibus ibit
praeda feris? certe tumulos supremaque uictis
busta dabas: ubi Cecropiae post proelia flammae,
Theseos ignis ubi est?' non spernit coniugis aequas
ille preces, leuiterque oculos ad moenia Cadmi 520
rettulit, et uiso sederunt flumina nutu.
illius exangues umeri et perfossa patescunt
pectora: ceu uentis alte cum elata resedit
tempestas, surgunt scopuli quaesitaque nautis
terra, et ab infestis descendunt aequora saxis. 525
quid ripas tenuisse iuuat?

(am I thus faithful to my own?), will he go as prey to the sea’s cruel beasts?
surely you were granting barrows and last pyres to the vanquished: where are the Cecropian flames after the battles,
where is Theseus’s fire?' he does not spurn the equitable prayers of his spouse, and lightly his eyes back to the walls of Cadmus 520
he turned, and at the sight the rivers settled at his nod.
his bloodless shoulders and his pierced breast lie open:
as when a storm, lifted high by winds, has subsided,
reefs rise up and land sought by sailors appears,
and the waters draw back from hostile rocks. 525
what profit is there in having held the banks?

premit undique nimbo
telorum Phoenissa cohors, nec tegmina membris
ulla, omnisque patet leto; tunc uulnera manant,
quique sub amne diu stupuit cruor, aere nudo
soluitur et tenues uenarum laxat hiatus, 530

on every side with a nimbus of missiles
the Phoenician cohort presses, nor any coverings for the limbs,
and all lies open to death; then the wounds flow,
and the gore which for long was stupefied beneath the river, by the naked air
is loosened and relaxes the thin hiatus of the veins, 530

incertique labant undarum e frigore gressus.
procumbit, Getico qualis procumbit in Haemo
seu Boreae furiis putri seu robore quercus
caelo mixta comas, ingentemque aera laxat:
illam nutantem nemus et mons ipse tremescit                535
qua tellure cadat, quas obruat ordine siluas.
non tamen aut ensem galeamue audacia cuiquam
tangere; uix credunt oculis ingentiaque horrent
funera et astrictis accedunt comminus armis.
    tandem adiit Hypseus capulumque in morte tenenti                540
extrahit et toruos laxauit casside uultus;
itque per Aonios alte mucrone corusco
suspensam ostentans galeam et clamore superbit:
'hic ferus Hippomedon, hic formidabilis ultor
Tydeos infandi debellatorque cruenti                545

and his steps waver uncertain from the chill of the waves.
he falls, as on Getic Haemus there falls
an oak, whether by the furies of Boreas, whether with rotten or with oaken strength,
its locks mingled with the sky, and it lets loose a vast breath of air:
at that one swaying the grove and the mountain itself tremble,                535
on what ground it will fall, what woods in a row it will overwhelm.
yet no one’s audacity dares to touch either sword or helmet;
they scarcely trust their eyes and shudder at the huge corpse,
and they draw near at close quarters with armor fastened tight.
    at length Hypseus approached, and from him who in death was holding the hilt                540
he wrenched it out and loosed his grim visage from the casque;
and he goes high through the Aonian ranks, with flashing point,
displaying the helmet suspended, and he exults with a shout:
‘here is fierce Hippomedon, here the formidable avenger,
the vanquisher of Tydeus unspeakable and sanguinary.’                545

gurgitis!' agnouit longe pressitque dolorem
magnanimus Capaneus, telumque inmane lacerto
hortatur librans: 'ades o mihi, dextera, tantum
tu praesens bellis et ineuitabile numen,
te uoco, te solam superum contemptor adoro.'                550
sic ait, et uoti sese facit ipse potentem.
it tremibunda abies clipeum per et aerea texta
loricae tandemque animam sub pectore magno
deprendit: ruit haud alio quam celsa fragore
turris, ubi innumeros penitus quassata per ictus                555
labitur effractamque aperit uictoribus urbem.
cui super adsistens, 'non infitiamur honorem
mortis' ait 'refer huc oculos, ego uulneris auctor;
laetus abi multumque aliis iactantior umbris!'
tunc ensem galeamque rapit clipeumque reuellit                560

'of the whirlpool!' From afar the magnanimous Capaneus recognized and suppressed his grief,
and, balancing the huge weapon on his upper arm, he exhorts it: 'be present to me, O right hand, you alone present in wars and the inevitable numen;
you I call, you alone, a contemner of the gods above, I adore.'                550
Thus he speaks, and makes himself himself the accomplisher of his prayer.
Off goes the quivering fir through the shield and the brazen weavings
of the corselet, and at last it catches the life beneath the great breast:
he falls with no other crash than a lofty tower,
when, shaken to its depths by numberless blows, it slides down and opens to the victors the breached city.                555
And standing over him, he says, 'we do not deny the honor
of death; turn your eyes back hither—I am the author of the wound;
go off joyful and far more vaunting than other shades!'
Then he snatches the sword and helmet and wrenches away the shield.                560

Hypseos; exanimumque tenens super Hippomedonta,
'accipe' ait 'simul hostiles, dux magne, tuasque
exuuias, ueniet cineri decus et suus ordo
manibus; interea iustos dum reddimus ignes,
hoc ultor Capaneus operit tua membra sepulcro.'                565
sic anceps dura belli uice mutua Grais
Sidoniisque simul nectebat uulnera Mauors:
hic ferus Hippomedon, illic non segnior Hypseus
fletur, et alterni praebent solacia luctus.
    tristibus interea somnum turbata figuris                570
torua sagittiferi mater Tegeatis ephebi,
crine dato passim plantisque ex more solutis,
ante diem gelidas ibat Ladonis ad undas
purgatura malum fluuio uiuente soporem.
namque per attonitas curarum pondere noctes                575

of Hypseus; and, holding the lifeless one above Hippomedon,
“receive,” he says, “at once the hostile and your own
spoils; honor and its due order shall come to the ash,
to the Manes; meanwhile, while we render the rightful fires,
this Avenger Capaneus covers your limbs with a sepulcher.”                565
thus, in a two-edged hard turn of war, Mavors was weaving
mutual wounds for Greeks and Sidonians alike:
here fierce Hippomedon is wept, there Hypseus no slower;
and alternating griefs afford consolations.
    meanwhile, with sleep troubled by grim figures, the grim mother                570
of the arrow-bearing Tegean ephebe,
with hair let down everywhere and, as is the custom, her soles unbound,
before daybreak was going to the icy waves of the Ladon,
to purge the evil slumber by the living river.
for through nights stunned by the weight of cares                575

saepe et delapsas adytis, quas ipsa dicarat,
exuuias, seque ignotis errare sepulcris
extorrem nemorum Dryadumque a plebe fugatam,
saepe nouos nati bello rediisse triumphos,
armaque et alipedem notum comitesque uidebat,                580
numquam ipsum, nunc ex umeris fluxisse pharetras,
effigiesque suas simulacraque nota cremari.
praecipuos sed enim illa metus portendere uisa est
nox miserae totoque erexit pectore matrem.
nota per Arcadias felici robore siluas                585
quercus erat, Triuiae quam desacrauerat ipsa
electam turba nemorum numenque colendo
fecerat: hic arcus et fessa reponere tela,
armaque curua suum et uacuorum terga leonum
figere et ingentes aequantia cornua siluas.                590

often too she saw the spoils that had slipped from the adyta, which she herself had dedicated, and herself wandering among unknown tombs, an exile from the groves and driven from the plebe of Dryads, often that new triumphs of her son had returned from war, and she saw arms and the well-known wing-footed steed and companions, never himself, now that the quivers had flowed down from his shoulders, and that her effigies and familiar simulacra were being burned. but indeed that night seemed to portend especial fears to the wretched mother and raised her to her very core. there was an oak, renowned through the Arcadian woods for its fortunate strength, which she herself had set apart for Trivia, chosen from the throng of groves, and by her cult had made a divinity: here to lay aside her bows and her weary shafts, and to fasten up the curved arms of her own and the hides of emptied lions, and antlers equaling the vast forests. 580

585

590

uix ramis locus, agrestes adeo omnia cingunt
exuuiae, et uiridem ferri nitor impedit umbram.
hanc, ut forte iugis longo defessa redibat
uenatu, modo rapta ferox Erymanthidos ursae
ora ferens, multo proscissam uulnere cernit                595
deposuisse comam et rorantes sanguine ramos
expirare solo; quaerenti nympha cruentas
Maenadas atque hostem dixit saeuisse Lyaeum.
dum gemit et planctu circumdat pectus inani,
abrupere oculi noctem maestoque cubili                600
exilit et falsos quaerit per lumina fletus.
    ergo ut in amne nefas merso ter crine piauit
uerbaque sollicitas matrum solantia curas
addidit, armatae ruit ad delubra Dianae
rore sub Eoo, notasque ex ordine siluas                605

hardly was there room for branches, so far do rustic trophies gird all things,
and the gleam of iron hinders the green shade.
this one, as by chance she was returning, wearied by long hunting on the ridges,
fierce, just now bearing the jaws of an Erymanthian she-bear snatched away,
she sees torn with many a wound, having laid down its hair, and the branches dripping with blood                595
breathing out upon the ground; to her as she asked, a nymph said that the bloody
Maenads and the foe Lyaeus had raged.
while she groans and circles her breast with vain beating,
her eyes broke off the night, and from the gloomy couch she springs
and seeks the false tears through her eyes.
    therefore, when in the river she had expiated the impiety with her hair dipped thrice,
and had added words consoling the anxious cares of mothers,
armed she rushes to the shrines of Diana
beneath the Eoan dew, and the familiar woods in order                605

et quercum gauisa uidet. tunc limine diuae
astitit et tali nequiquam uoce precatur:
'uirgo potens nemorum, cuius non mollia signa
militiamque trucem sexum indignata frequento
more nihil Graio (nec te gens aspera ritu                610
Colchis Amazoniaeue magis coluere cateruae):
si mihi non umquam thiasi ludusue proteruae
noctis et, inuiso quamuis temerata cubili,
non tamen aut teretes thyrsos aut mollia gessi
pensa, sed in tetricis et post conubia lustris,                615
sic quoque uenatrix animumque innupta remansi,
nec mihi secretis culpam occultare sub antris
cura, sed ostendi prolem posuique trementem
ante tuos confessa pedes, nec degener ille
sanguinis inque meos reptauit protinus arcus,                620

and rejoicing she sees the oak. Then on the threshold of the goddess
she stood and with such a voice, in vain, she prays:
'maiden potent of the groves, whose not-soft standards
and grim militia, disdaining the sex, I frequent
in no Greek manner (nor have the rough Colchian or Amazonian bands worshiped you more by their rite): 610
if never for me the revel of the thiasus or the sport of wanton
night, and, although violated by a hateful couch,
yet I have borne neither the smooth thyrsi nor the soft
spindles, but in grim lustra and beyond nuptial seasons
thus too I remained a huntress and unwed in spirit,615
nor is it my care to hide the fault beneath secret caverns,
but I have shown and set the trembling offspring
before your feet, confessing, nor was he degenerate
of the blood, and straightway he crawled toward my bows, 620

tela puer lacrimis et prima uoce poposcit:
hunc mihi (quid trepidae noctes somnusque minantur?),
hunc, precor, audaci qui nunc ad proelia uoto
heu nimium tibi fisus abit, da uisere belli
uictorem, uel, si ampla peto, da uisere tantum! 625
[si non uictorem des uictum cernere saltem!] 625a
hic sudet tuaque arma ferat. preme dira malorum
signa; quid in nostris, nemoralis Delia, siluis
Maenades hostiles Thebanaque numina regnant?
ei mihi!

the boy asked for weapons with tears and with his first voice:
this one for me (what do anxious nights and sleep portend?),
this one, I pray, who now, too much trusting in you, goes off to battles with a bold vow,
alas, grant me to see him victor in war, or, if I ask for ample things, grant only to see him! 625
[if not to see him victorious, at least grant to behold him vanquished!] 625a
here let him sweat and bear your arms. Press down the dire signs of evils;
why in our woods, woodland Delia, do hostile Maenads and Theban divinities rule?
alas for me!

cur penitus (simque augur cassa futuri!),
cur penitus magnoque interpretor omine quercum? 630
quod si uera sopor miserae praesagia mittit,
per te maternos, mitis Dictynna, labores
fraternumque decus, cunctis hunc fige sagittis
infelicem uterum; miserae sine funera matris
audiat ille prior!' dixit, fletuque soluto 635

why do I to the depths (and may I be an augur void of the future!),
why do I interpret to the depths and with a great omen the oak? 630
but if sleep sends true presages to the wretched one,
through you, gentle Dictynna, by your maternal labors
and your fraternal honor, fix with all your arrows
this ill-fated womb; permit that he be the first to hear
the funerals of his wretched mother!' she said, and with weeping unloosed 635

aspicit et niueae saxum maduisse Dianae.
    illam diua ferox etiamnum in limine sacro
expositam et gelidas uerrentem crinibus aras
linquit, et in mediis frondentem Maenalon astris
exuperat gressu saltumque ad moenia Cadmi                640
destinat, interior caeli qua semita lucet
dis tantum, et cunctas iuxta uidet ardua terras.
iamque fere medium Parnasi frondea praeter
colla tenebat iter, cum fratrem in nube corusca
aspicit haud solito uisu: remeabat ab armis                645
maestus Echioniis, demersi funera lugens
auguris.

he beholds too that the stone of snow-white Diana has been wetted.
    her the fierce goddess, even now on the sacred threshold,
set out and sweeping the icy altars with her hair,
leaves, and she overpasses with her stride Maenalus leafing in the midst of the stars,
and she directs herself through the woodland to the walls of Cadmus,                640
where an inner path of the sky shines for the gods only, and alongside she sees all the steep lands.
and now she was holding her way past almost the middle necks of Parnassus’s leafy
ridges, when she beholds her brother in a flashing cloud,
not with his customary aspect: he was returning from the Echionian arms,                645
sad, mourning the funerals of the sunken augur.

inrubit caeli plaga sidere mixto,
occursuque sacro pariter iubar arsit utrimque,
et coiere arcus et respondere pharetrae.
ille prior: 'scio, Labdacias, germana, cohortes 650

the region of the sky blushed with a mingled star,
and at the sacred encounter equally the radiance burned on both sides,
and the bows converged and the quivers made answer.
he first: 'I know, sister, the Labdacid cohorts 650

et nimium fortes ausum petis Arcada pugnas.
fida rogat genetrix: utinam indulgere precanti
fata darent! en ipse mei (pudet!) inritus arma
cultoris frondesque sacras ad inania uidi
Tartara et in memet uersos descendere uultus; 655
nec tenui currus terraeque abrupta coegi,
saeuus ego inmeritusque coli.

and you aim at too stalwart a daring—the Arcadian battles.
a faithful mother begs: would that indulgence be granted to the one praying;
by the Fates! lo, I myself (shame!) saw the ineffectual arms
of my worshiper and the sacred fronds descend to empty Tartarus,
and the faces turned upon myself sink down; 655
nor did I with a light hand rein in my chariot and the earth’s steep break-offs,
savage I, and unworthy of cult.

lugentia cernis
antra, soror, mutasque domos: haec sola rependo
dona pio comiti; nec tu peritura mouere
auxilia et maestos in uanum perge labores. 660
finis adest iuueni, non hoc mutabile fatum,
nec te de dubiis fraterna oracula fallunt.'
'sed decus extremum misero,' confusa uicissim
uirgo refert, 'duraeque licet solacia morti
quaerere, nec fugiet poenas quicumque nefandam 665

you behold the lamenting
caverns, sister, and the mute homes: these alone I repay
as gifts to my pious companion; and do not stir aids doomed to perish,
and proceed with mournful labors in vain. 660
the end is at hand for the youth; this fate is not mutable,
nor do fraternal oracles mislead you about uncertainties.'
'but the final honor for the wretch,' confused in turn
the maiden replies, 'and it is permitted to seek solaces for harsh death,
nor will he escape penalties, whoever has done the nefarious— 665

insontis pueri scelerarit sanguine dextram
impius, et nostris fas sit saeuire sagittis.'
sic effata mouet gressus libandaque fratri
parcius ora tulit, Thebasque infesta petiuit.
    at pugna ereptis maior crudescit utrimque                670
regibus, alternosque ciet uindicta furores.
Hypseos hinc turmae desolatumque magistro
agmen, at hinc grauius fremit Hippomedontis adempti
orba cohors; praebent obnixi corpora ferro,
idem ardor rabidis externum haurire cruorem                675
ac fudisse suum, nec se uestigia mutant:
stat cuneo defixa acies, hostique cruento
dant animas et terga negant: cum lapsa per auras
uertice Dircaei uelox Latonia montis
astitit; agnoscunt colles notamque tremescit                 680
silua deam, saeuis ubi quondam exerta sagittis
fecundam lasso Nioben consumpserat arcu.

“let him, impious, who has befouled his right hand with the blood of the innocent boy, and let it be right to rage with our arrows.”
thus having spoken she sets her steps in motion and bore her lips, to be tasted by her brother, more sparingly, and made for Thebes in hostility.
but the fight grows harsher on both sides with the kings snatched away, 670
and vengeance stirs alternating frenzies. On this side the squadrons of Hypseus and the column desolated of its master, and on that the cohort, orphaned by the loss of Hippomedon, roars more heavily; they, straining, offer their bodies to the steel, the same ardor to drain alien gore with rabid fury and to have poured out their own, nor do they change their tracks:
the battle line stands fixed in a wedge, and to the bloody foe they give their lives and refuse their backs: when, gliding through the airs, the swift Latonian stood upon the crest of the Dircaean mountain;
the hills recognize the goddess, and the wood trembles at the familiar one, where once, her savage arrows laid bare, with weary bow she had consumed fertile Niobe.

illum acies inter coepta iam caede superbum
nescius armorum et primas tunc passus habenas
uenator raptabat equus, quem discolor ambit 685

him, proud amid the battle-lines with slaughter now begun,
unknowing of arms and then enduring the first reins,
a hunter horse was snatching him away, whom a dappled coat encircles 685

tigris et auratis aduerberat unguibus armos.
colla sedent nodis, et castigata iubarum
libertas, nemorisque notae sub pectore primo
iactantur niueo lunata monilia dente.
ipse bis Oebalio saturatam murice pallam                690
lucentesque auro tunicas (hoc neuerat unum
mater opus) tenui collectus in ilia uinclo,
cornipedis laeuo clipeum demiserat armo,
ense grauis nimio: tereti iuuat aurea morsu
fibula pendentis circum latera aspera cinctus,                695
uaginaeque sonum tremulumque audire pharetrae
murmur et a cono missas in terga catenas;
interdum cristas hilaris iactare comantes
et pictum gemmis galeae iubar. ast ubi pugna
cassis anhela calet, resoluto uertice nudus                700

the tiger-skin lashes the shoulders with gilded claws.
collars sit with knots, and the liberty of the manes
is chastised, and beneath the foremost breast are tossed,
with snowy ivory tooth, crescent necklaces, tokens of the grove.
he himself, in a robe twice saturated with Oebalian murex                690
and tunics gleaming with gold (this one work
his mother had woven), gathered at the flanks by a thin bond,
had let a shield down from the hoofed horse’s left shoulder,
burdened with an over-large sword: it pleases him, girded,
that a golden brooch with rounded bite fasten the roughness of the hanging belt around his sides,                695
and to hear the sound of the sheath and the quiver’s
tremulous murmur and the chains sent from the cone upon his back;
sometimes, cheerful, to toss the flowing crests
and the gem-studded painted radiance of the helmet. But when in the fight
the panting helm grows hot, with his head loosened he is bare,                700

exoritur: tunc dulce comae radiisque trementes
dulce nitent uisus et, quas dolet ipse morari,
nondum mutatae rosea lanugine malae.
nec formae sibi laude placet multumque seueris
asperat ora minis, sed frontis seruat honorem 705
ira decens. dat sponte locum Thebana iuuentus,
natorum memores, intentaque tela retorquent;
sed premit et saeuas miserantibus ingerit hastas.

he arises: then his hair, trembling in the rays, is sweet, and his eyes shine sweetly, and his cheeks, not yet changed by rosy down—whose delay he himself laments.
nor is he pleased by praise of his beauty, and he roughens his face with severe threats, but a becoming anger preserves the honor of his brow. 705
of their own accord the Theban youth give place, mindful of their sons, and they turn back their poised weapons;
but he presses them and, though they pity, he drives in savage spears.

illum et Sidoniae iuga per Teumesia Nymphae
bellantem atque ipso sudore et puluere gratum                710
laudant, et tacito ducunt suspiria uoto.
    talia cernenti mitis subit alta Dianae
corda dolor, fletuque genas uiolata, 'quod,' inquit
'nunc tibi, quod leti quaeram dea fida propinqui
effugium? haecne ultro properasti in proelia, saeue                715

The Teumesian Nymphs too along the Sidonian ridges
praise him fighting and, pleasing for his very sweat and dust,                710
and with a silent vow they draw forth sighs.
    to her beholding such things there comes into the deep heart of gentle Diana
grief, and her cheeks, stained with weeping, 'what,' she says,
'now for you, what escape from near-approaching death shall I, a faithful goddess, seek?
Was it for these battles that you hastened of your own accord, cruel one?'                715

ac miserande puer? cruda heu festinaque uirtus
suasit et hortatrix animosi gloria leti!
scilicet angustum iamdudum urguentibus annis
Maenalium tibi, parue, nemus, perque antra ferarum
uix tutae sine matre uiae, siluestria cuius 720
nondum tela procax arcumque implere ualebas.

and, boy to be pitied? raw, alas, and hasty valor
has urged you on, and the exhortress—the glory of spirited death!
surely, with years pressing, the Maenalian grove has long been too narrow for you, little one,
and through the dens of wild beasts the ways scarcely safe without your mother,
whose woodland 720
shafts you were not yet, forward, able to load into the bow.

et nunc illa meas ingentem plangit ad aras
inuidiam surdasque fores et limina lassat:
tu dulces lituos ululataque proelia gaudes
felix et miserae tantum moriture parenti.'                725
ne tamen extremo frustra morientis honori
adfuerit, uenit in medios caligine fulua
saepta globos, primumque leues furata sagittas
audacis tergo pueri caelestibus implet
goryton telis, quorum sine sanguine nullum                 730
decidit; ambrosio tunc spargit membra liquore,
spargit equum, ne quo uioletur uulnere corpus
ante necem, cantusque sacros et conscia miscet
murmura, secretis quae Colchidas ipsa sub antris
nocte docet monstratque feras quaerentibus herbas.                735

and now that woman beats a great grievance at my altars,
wearies out the deaf doors and thresholds:
you rejoice in sweet war-trumpets and ululated battles,
happy—and destined only to die—to your wretched mother.'                725
yet, lest she be present in vain to the dying one’s final honor,
she comes into the midst of the masses, wrapped in tawny mist,
and first, having stolen the light arrows
from the back of the bold boy, she fills the goryton, the quiver, with celestial shafts,
of which none falls without blood;                 730
then she sprinkles his limbs with ambrosial liquid,
sprinkles the horse, lest the body be violated by any wound
before death, and she mixes sacred chants and knowing
murmurs, which she herself teaches to Colchian maidens under secret caves
by night, and shows to seekers the herbs for wild beasts.                735

    tunc uero exerto circumuolat igneus arcu
nec se mente regit, patriae matrisque suique
inmemor, et nimium caelestibus utitur armis:
ut leo, cui paruo mater Gaetula cruentos
suggerit ipsa cibos, cum primum crescere sensit                740
colla iubis toruusque nouos respexit ad ungues,
indignatur ali, tandemque effusus apertos
liber amat campos et nescit in antra reuerti.
    quos, age, Parrhasio sternis, puer improbe, cornu?
prima Tanagraeum turbauit harundo Coroebum                745
extremo galeae primoque in margine parmae
angusta transmissa uia: stat faucibus unda
sanguinis, et sacri facies rubet igne ueneni.

    then indeed, with his bow thrust out, the fiery one wheels around,
nor does he rule himself with mind, forgetful of fatherland and mother and himself,
and he uses too much the celestial arms:
as a lion, to whom, when he was small, his Gaetulian mother herself supplies bloody
victuals, when first he felt his neck to grow with manes and grimly looked back at his new claws,                740
he is indignant at being fed, and at last, poured forth, free he loves
the open plains and does not know to return into the caves.
    whom, come now, do you lay low with your Parrhasian horn, shameless boy?
the first reed-shaft threw into turmoil Coroebus of Tanagra,                745
by a narrow path sent through at the far edge of the helmet and the foremost margin of the parma (small shield):
a wave of blood stands at his jaws, and his face reddens with the sacred fire of the poison.

saeuius Eurytion, cui luminis orbe sinistro
callida tergeminis acies se condidit uncis. 750

more savagely, Eurytion, in whose left orb of light
the cunning point with triple hooks buried itself. 750

ille trahens oculo plenam labente sagittam
ibat in auctorem: sed diuum fortia quid non
tela queant? alio geminatum lumine uulnus
expleuit tenebras; sequitur tamen improbus hostem,
qua meminit, fusum donec prolapsus in Idan 755
decidit: hic saeui miser inter funera belli
palpitat et mortem sociosque hostesque precatur.
addit Abantiadas, insignem crinibus Argum
et male dilectum miserae Cydona sorori.

he, dragging the arrow full in his slipping eye,
was going against the author: but what are the strong
missiles of the gods not able to do? with his other light a twinned wound
made the darkness complete; nevertheless the shameless one follows the foe,
as far as he remembers, until, sprawled, having slipped, upon Ida 755
he fell: here, a wretch amid the funerals of savage war,
he palpitates and prays for death and for comrades and for enemies.
he adds the Abantiads, Argus distinguished by his hair,
and Cydon, ill-beloved by his wretched sister.

[illi perfossum telo patefecerat inguen]                760
                                    . . .                                760a
huic geminum obliqua traiecit harundine tempus,
exilit hac ferrum, uelox hac penna remansit;
fluxit utrimque cruor. nulli tela aspera mortis
dant ueniam, non forma Lamum, non infula Lygdum,
non pubescentes texerunt Aeolon anni:                765

[to him he had laid open the groin, perforated by the weapon]                760
                                    . . .                                760a
to this one he transfixed the twin temple with an oblique reed-shaft,
on this side the iron leapt out, on this the swift feather remained;
gore flowed on both sides. to none do the harsh weapons of death
grant pardon, not beauty Lamus, not the fillet Lygdus,
nor did the pubescent years shelter Aeolus:                765

figitur ora Lamus, flet saucius inguina Lygdus,
perfossus telo niueam gemis, Aeole, frontem.
te praeceps Euboea tulit, te candida Thisbe
miserat, hunc uirides non excipietis ~Amyclae.
numquam cassa manus, nullum sine numine fugit 770
missile, nec requies dextrae, sonitumque priori
iungit harundo sequens.

Lamus is fixed through the mouth; Lygdus, wounded, weeps over his groin,
perforated by a weapon, you lament, Aeolus, your snow-white forehead.
headlong Euboea bore you; bright Thisbe
had sent you; you green ~Amyclae will not receive this man.
never is the hand in vain; no missile flies without numen 770
nor is there rest for the right hand, and a following reed
joins its sound to the previous one.

unum quis crederet arcum
aut unam saeuire manum? modo derigit ictus,
nunc latere alterno dubius conamina mutat,
nunc fugit instantes et solo respicit arcu.                775
    et iam mirantes indignantesque coibant
Labdacidae, primusque Iouis de sanguine claro
Amphion ignarus adhuc, quae funera campis
ille daret: 'quonam usque moram lucrabere fati,
o multum meritos puer orbature parentes?                780

Who would believe one bow, or one hand, to rage? At one moment he directs his blows,
now, wavering, he shifts his attempts to the alternate flank,
now he flees those pressing on and looks back with the bow alone.                775
    and now the Labdacids, wondering and indignant, were coming together,
and first Amphion, of Jove’s bright blood,
still unaware what funerals he would give to the fields, said: “How long will you win a delay of fate,
O boy destined to bereave parents who have deserved much?”                780

quin etiam menti tumor atque audacia gliscit,
congressus dum nemo tuos pugnamque minorem
dignatur bellis, iramque relinqueris infra.
i, repete Arcadiam mixtusque aequalibus illic,
dum ferus hic uero desaeuit puluere Mauors,                785
proelia lude domi: quodsi te maesta sepulcri
fama mouet, dabimus leto moriare uirorum!'
iamdudum hunc contra stimulis grauioribus ardet
trux Atalantiades; necdum ille quierat, et infit:
'sera etiam in Thebas, quarum hic exercitus, arma                790
profero; quisnam adeo puer, ut bellare recuset
talibus? Arcadiae stirpem et fera semina gentis,
non Thebana uides: non me sub nocte silenti
Thyias Echionio genetrix famulata Lyaeo
edidit, haud umquam deformes uertice mitras                795

nay, even too the swelling of mind and audacity waxes,
while no one deigns your encounters, and deems your battle a lesser thing
than wars, and you are left with your ire kept beneath.
go, seek Arcadia again, and, mingled there with your equals,
while here indeed fierce Mavors rages in true dust,                785
play your battles at home: but if the sad rumor of the tomb
moves you, we will grant it—you shall die the death of men!'
long already against him with heavier goads burns
the grim son of Atalanta; nor had that one yet fallen silent, and he begins:
'even late against Thebes, whose army this is, I bring forth arms;                790
who is so much a boy as to refuse to war
with such? you see the stock of Arcadia and the wild seeds of a race,
not Theban: not me under the silent night
did my genetrix, a Thyias serving Echionian Lyaeus,
bring forth, nor have I ever disfigured my head with misshapen miters.                795

induimus turpemque manu iactauimus hastam.
protinus astrictos didici reptare per amnes
horrendasque domos magnarum intrare ferarum
et++quid plura loquar? ferrum mea semper et arcus
mater habet, uestri feriunt caua tympana patres.' 800
non tulit Amphion uultumque et in ora loquentis
telum inmane rotat; sed ferri lumine diro
turbatus sonipes sese dominumque retorsit
in latus atque auidam transmisit deuius hastam.

we have put them on and with the hand have flung the shameful spear.
straightway I learned to crawl through tight-bound rivers
and to enter the horrendous homes of great beasts—
and—what more should I say? my mother always has iron and bows;
your fathers beat hollow tympana.' 800
Amphion did not endure it, and at the face and speaking mouth
he whirls an immense missile; but the steed, troubled by the dire gleam
of the iron, twisted himself and his master aside
to the flank, and sent the eager spear astray, past its mark.

acrior hoc iuuenem stricto mucrone petebat 805
Amphion, cum se medio Latonia campo
iecit et ante oculos omni stetit obuia uultu.
haerebat iuueni deuinctus amore pudico
Maenalius Dorceus, cui bella suumque timorem
mater et audaces pueri mandauerat annos. 810

All the keener for this, Amphion was seeking the youth with a drawn blade 805
when the Latonian hurled herself into the middle of the field
and stood before his eyes, meeting him full-face.
Clinging to the youth, bound by modest love,
was Maenalian Dorceus, to whom the mother had entrusted warfare
and the boy’s own fear and audacious years. 810

huius tum uultu dea dissimulata profatur:
'hactenus Ogygias satis infestasse cateruas,
Parthenopaee, satis; miserae iam parce parenti,
parce deis, quicumque fauent.' nec territus ille:
'hunc sine me (non plura petam), fidissime Dorceu,                815
sternere humi, qui tela meis gerit aemula telis
et similes cultus et frena sonantia iactat.
frena regam, cultus Triuiae pendebitis alto
limine, captiuis matrem donabo pharetris.'
audiit et mixto risit Latonia fletu.                820
    uiderat hanc caeli iamdudum in parte remota
Gradiuum complexa Venus, dumque anxia Thebas
commemorat Cadmumque uiro caraeque nepotes
Harmoniae, pressum tacito sub corde dolorem
tempestiua mouet: 'nonne hanc, Gradiue, proteruam                825

then, with this one’s face the goddess, disguised, speaks forth:
‘thus far it is enough to have infested the Ogygian cohorts, Parthenopaeus, enough; now spare your wretched parent, spare the gods who favor you.’ He was not terrified: ‘allow me this man (I will seek no more), most faithful Dorceus,                815
to strew him on the ground, he who bears weapons emulous of my weapons and flaunts similar gear and resounding reins. I will guide the reins; you, garbs of Trivia, shall hang from the high threshold; with captive quivers I will make a gift to my mother.’
the Latonian heard and laughed with mingled weeping.                820
    Venus had long since seen her in a remote part of the sky embracing Gradivus, and while, anxious, she recounts Thebes and Cadmus to her husband and the dear descendants of Harmonia, she seasonably stirs the grief pressed beneath her silent heart: ‘do you not, Gradivus, this wanton one—                825

uirginitate uides mediam se ferre uirorum
coetibus, utque acies audax et Martia signa
temperet? en etiam donat praebetque necandos
tot nostra de gente uiros. huic tradita uirtus,
huic furor?

Do you see, in virginity, her carrying herself in the midst of gatherings of men,
and how she, audacious, tempers the battle-line and the Martial standards?
Behold, she even gives and proffers to be slain
so many men of our own race. To her is valor consigned,
to her—fury?

agrestes superest tibi figere dammas.'                830
desiluit iustis commotus in arma querelis
Bellipotens, cui sola uagum per ina ruenti
Ira comes, reliqui sudant ad bella Furores.
nec mora, cum maestam monitu Letoida duro
increpat adsistens: 'non haec tibi proelia diuum                835
dat pater; armiferum ni protinus improba campum
deseris, huic aequam nosces nec Pallada dextrae.'
quid faciat contra? premit hinc Mauortia cuspis,
hinc plenae tibi, parue, colus, Iouis inde seueri
uultus: abit solo post haec euicta pudore.                840

it remains for you to pierce rustic does.'                830
he leapt down into arms, stirred by just complaints,
the Bellipotent, to whom Wrath alone is companion as he rushes roaming
through the void; the remaining Frenzies sweat at wars.
nor delay, when, standing by, he rebukes the daughter of Leto, sad,
with harsh admonition: 'these battles the father of the gods does not                835
grant to you; unless at once, shameless one, you leave the armor-bearing
field, you shall know Pallas not equal to this right hand.'
what should she do against this? on this side the Mavorsian spear presses,
on that side the distaffs full for you, little one, and from there the stern
countenance of severe Jove: after this she departs, conquered by shame alone.                840

    at pater Ogygias Mauors circumspicit alas
horrendumque Dryanta mouet, cui sanguinis auctor
turbidus Orion, comitesque odisse Dianae
(inde furit) patrium. hic turbatos arripit ense
Arcadas exarmatque ducem; cadit agmine longo                845
Cyllenes populus Tegeesque habitator opacae
Aepytiique duces Telphusiacaeque phalanges.
ipsum autem et lassa fidit prosternere dextra,
nec seruat uires: etenim huc iam fessus et illuc
mutabat turmas; urguent praesagia mille                850
funeris, et nigrae praecedunt nubila mortis.
iamque miser raros comites uerumque uidebat
Dorcea, iam uires paulatim abscedere sensit,
sentit et exhaustas umero leuiore pharetras;
iam minus atque minus fert ira, puerque uidetur                855

    but father Ogygian Mavors surveys the wings,
and he sets in motion dread Dryas, whose author of blood is turbulent Orion, and to hate the companions of Diana is ancestral (from this he rages).
here he seizes with the sword the Arcadians thrown into confusion and disarms their leader; in a long column falls                845
the people of Cyllene and the inhabitant of shadowy Tegea and the leaders of Aepytus and the Telphusian phalanxes.
and he even trusts with his wearied right hand to lay him himself low, nor does he conserve his forces: for already weary he was shifting his troops now here, now there;
a thousand presages of funeral press, and the black clouds of death go before.                850
and now the wretch was seeing his companions few and true Dorcus, now he felt his strength little by little withdraw,
and he feels his quivers exhausted, with a lighter shoulder;
now less and less does ire bear him, and he seems a boy.                855

et sibi, cum torua clipei metuendus obarsit
luce Dryas: tremor ora repens ac uiscera torsit
Arcados; utque feri uectorem fulminis albus
cum supra respexit olor, cupit hiscere ripam
Strymonos et trepidas in pectora contrahit alas:                860
sic iuuenem saeui conspecta mole Dryantis
iam non ira subit, sed leti nuntius horror.
arma tamen, frustra superos Triuiamque precatus,
molitur pallens et surdos expedit arcus.
iamque instat telis dextramque obliquus in ulnam                865
cornua contingit mucrone et pectora neruo,
cum ducis Aonii magno cita turbine cuspis
fertur in aduersum neruique obliqua sonori
uincla secat: pereunt ictus, manibusque remissis
uana supinato ceciderunt spicula cornu.                870

and for him, when Dryas loomed forth, to be feared with the grim light of his shield:
a creeping tremor wrenched the face and the vitals of the Arcadian; and as the white
swan, when he has looked up and seen the bearer of the fierce thunderbolt, longs that
the bank of the Strymon might gape, and draws his trembling wings to his breast: 860
so, at the sight of the savage bulk of Dryas, the youth is now overtaken not by anger,
but by a horror, harbinger of death. Yet, having in vain prayed to the gods above and
to Trivia, pallid he sets his arms in motion and readies his deaf bows. And now he presses
on with missiles and, leaning, he makes the bow-horns touch his right arm with the point
and his breast with the string, when the spear-point of the Aonian leader, swift in a great
whirlwind, is borne against him and cuts the slant bonds of the sonorous string: the shots
are undone, and, his hands relaxing, the futile little shafts fell from the upturned bow. 870

tunc miser et frenos turbatus et arma remisit,
uulneris impatiens umeri quod tegmine dextri
intrarat facilemque cutem; subit altera cuspis
cornipedisque fugam succiso poplite sistit.
tum cadit ipse Dryas (mirum!) nec uulneris umquam                875
conscius: olim auctor teli causaeque patebant.
    at puer infusus sociis in deuia campi
tollitur (heu simplex aetas!) moriensque iacentem
flebat equum; cecidit laxata casside uultus,
aegraque per trepidos expirat gratia uisus,                880
et prensis concussa comis ter colla quaterque
stare negant, ipsisque nefas lacrimabile Thebis,
ibat purpureus niueo de pectore sanguis.

then the wretch, dismayed, let go both the reins and his arms,
unable to endure the wound of his shoulder, which had entered beneath the covering of his right side
and the yielding skin; another spear goes in
and, the hamstring cut, halts the hoof-footed steed’s flight.
then Dryas himself falls (wonder!), and never aware of the wound:                875
formerly the author of the shaft and the cause were evident.
    but the boy, poured among his comrades into the byways of the plain,
is lifted up (alas, simple age!), and, dying, he wept for his fallen
horse; his face fell as the loosened helm slipped,
and the ailing grace of his gaze breathes out through his trembling eyes,                880
and, his hair grasped and shaken, his neck refuses
to stay upright three times and four, and—even to Thebes itself a lamentable abomination—
purple blood was flowing from his snowy breast.

tandem haec singultu uerba incidente profatur:
'labimur, i, miseram, Dorceu, solare parentem. 885

at last he utters these words, as a sob falls in:
'we are slipping, go, Dorceus, console the wretched parent.' 885

illa quidem, si uera ferunt praesagia curae,
aut somno iam triste nefas aut omine uidit.
tu tamen arte pia trepidam suspende diuque
decipito; neu tu subitus neue arma tenenti
ueneris, et tandem, cum iam cogere fateri, 890
dic: "merui, genetrix, poenas; inuita capesse:
arma puer rapui, nec te retinente quieui,
nec tibi sollicitae saltem inter bella peperci.
uiue igitur potiusque animis irascere nostris
et iam pone metus.

she indeed, if the presages of her cares bear true,
has already seen the sad nefarious wrong either in sleep or by an omen.
you, however, with pious art keep the frightened woman in suspense and for a long time
beguile her; and do not come upon her suddenly nor when she is holding arms,
and at last, when you now compel her to confess, 890
say: "I have deserved, mother, the penalties; unwilling, take them up:
I, a boy, seized arms, nor did I rest with you restraining me,
nor did I spare you, anxious as you were, at least amid wars.
live therefore rather, and be angry with our spirits,
and now set down your fears.

frustra de colle Lycaei 895
anxia prospectas, si quis per nubila longe
aut sonus aut nostro sublatus ab agmine puluis:
frigidus et nuda iaceo tellure, nec usquam
tu prope, quae uultus efflantiaque ora teneres.
hunc tamen, orba parens, crinem,"' dextraque secandum 900

in vain from the hill of Lycaeus 895
anxious you look out, if perchance through the clouds far off
either any sound or dust lifted up from our column:
I lie frigid and on naked earth, and nowhere
are you near, you who would hold my face and the lips breathing out.
yet this lock, bereft mother,"—and with the right hand to be cut— 900

praebuit, '"hunc toto capies pro corpore crinem,
comere quem frustra me dedignante solebas.
huic dabis exequias, atque inter iusta memento
ne quis inexpertis hebetet mea tela lacertis
dilectosque canes ullis agat amplius antris. 905
haec autem primis arma infelicia castris
ure, uel ingratae crimen suspende Dianae."'

he proffered, "you will take this lock in place of the whole body,
which you used to comb in vain, I disdaining.
to this you will give the obsequies, and amid the rites remember
lest anyone with untried arms blunt my weapons,
nor let anyone drive my beloved hounds any longer into any caves. 905
and these ill-fated arms of my first campaign
burn, or hang as an indictment of ungrateful Diana."