Valerius Flaccus: ARGONAVTICA

Te quoque Thessalico iam serus ab hospite vesper
dividit et iam te tua gaudia, virgo, relinquunt
noxque ruit soli veniens non mitis amanti.
ergo ubi cunctatis extremo in limine plantis
contigit aegra toros et mens incensa tenebris, 5
vertere tunc varios per longa insomnia questus
nec pereat quo scire malo tandemque fateri
ausa sibi ~paulum~ medio sic fata dolore est:
'nunc ego quo casu vel quo sic per<vi>gil usque
ipsa volens errore trahor? non haec mihi certe 10
nox erat ante tuos, iuvenis fortissime, vultus,
quos ego cur iterum demens iterumque recordor
tam magno discreta mari?

Even you too the late evening now separates from the Thessalian guest,
and already your joys, maiden, abandon you,
and night rushes on, coming not gentle to the lover left alone.
therefore when, with feet delaying at the outer threshold,
she reached the couch, sick, and her mind inflamed in the darkness, 5
then through long insomnia she kept turning various laments,
and, that she not perish not knowing from what evil, at last daring to confess
to herself ~a little~, she spoke thus in the midst of pain:
'Now by what chance or by what am I thus ever-ful all the way,
I myself, willing, drawn on by error? Surely this was not my night before your faces, 10
bravest young man,
which I—why do I, insane, recall again and again,
separated by so great a sea?'

quid in hospite solo
mens mihi? cognati potius iam vellera Phrixi
accipiat, quae sola petit quaeque una laborum 15

What is my mind toward the solitary guest?
Rather, let him now receive the fleece of kinsman Phrixus,
that which alone he seeks and which alone of labors 15

causa viro. nam quando domos has ille reviset
aut meus Aesonias quando pater ibit ad urbes?
felices mediis qui se dare fluctibus ausi
nec tantas timuere vias talemque secuti
huc qui deinde virum; sed, sit quoque talis, abito.' 20
tum iactata toro <to>tumque experta cubile
ecce videt tenui candescere limen Eoo.

a cause for the man. For when will he revisit these homes,
or when will my father go to the Aesonian cities?
happy they who dared to give themselves to the mid-waves
and did not fear such great ways, and, following
a man such as this, then came hither; but, though he be such, away with him.' 20
then, tossed upon the couch and having tried the whole bed,
behold, she sees the threshold grow white with the thin Dawn from the East.

nec minus insomnem lux orta refecit amantem
quam cum languentes <levis> erigit imber aristas
grataque iam fessis descendunt flamina remis.                    25
      At sua longarum Minyas iam cura viarum
admonet inque ipso nequiquam tempore regem
laetitiae meritique petunt. quem passus Iason
vota prius captasque deis accendere praedas
prominet atque oculos longe tenet, aurea si iam                    30

nor did the risen light restore the sleepless lover less
than when a light shower raises the languishing ears (of grain)
and welcome breezes now descend upon weary oars.                    25
      But their concern for long journeys now admonishes the Minyans
and at that very moment, in vain, they seek the king for rejoicing and for their merit.
whom, having admitted, Jason first promises to kindle vows and captured spoils to the gods,
and he holds his eyes far off, to see whether the golden [fleece] now                    30

pellis et oblatis clarescant atria villis.
ille autem iamiam vultus vocesque parantem
ante capit rumpitque moras inque ipsa morantis
prosilit ora viri talique effunditur ira:
'orbe satos alio, sua litora regnaque habentes, 35
quis furor has mediis tot fluctibus egit in oras
quisve mei vos tantus amor? tu prima malorum
causa mihi, tu, Phrixe gener!

let the pelt and the halls grow bright with the fleeces offered.
but he, just now preparing his looks and his voices,
forestalls him and breaks off delays, and into the very face of the delaying
man he springs, and pours himself out in such wrath:
'born in another world, having your own shores and kingdoms, 35
what madness drove you through so many waves into these coasts,
or what so great love of me? you the first cause
of my evils, you, son-in-law of Phrixus!

non te aequore mersum
quo sor<or>, ut felix nullos nunc nomine Graios
nossem ego! quis regum Pelias, quis Thessalus aut quae 40
Graecia? quodnam hominum Minyae genus aut ubi cautes
Cyaneae?

not you drowned in the sea
where your sister was, so that, happy, I might now know no Greeks by name!
which of kings, Pelias, which Thessalian, or what 40
Greece? what race of men are the Minyae, or where are the Cyanean crags?

venit Scythicas en hospes in oras.
quinquaginta Asiam (pudet heu) penetrarit Iason
exulibus meque ante alios sic spreverit una,
una ratis, spolium ut vivo de rege reportet? 45

Lo, a stranger has come to Scythian shores.
That Jason with fifty has penetrated Asia (alas, it shames me),
and has thus scorned the exiles—and me before others—,
one, a single ship, so that he may carry back spoil from a living king? 45

ipsum offerre meos, ipsum <iam> pandere lucos
imperet et nullo dignetur vincere bello?
cur age non templis sacrata avellere dona
omnibus atque ipsas gremiis abducere natas,
praedo, libet? vobisne domos, vobisne parentes 50
esse putem, ratis infandis quos sola rapinis
saevaque pascit hiems et quos, credamus ut ipsis,
rex suus inlisit pelago vetuitque reverti,
scilicet Aeoliae pecudis poteretur ut auro?

that he himself should command me to offer my own people, that he himself <now> lay open my groves,
and deign to conquer with no war? why, come, is it not your pleasure, pirate, to tear away the gifts consecrated in the temples
of all and to carry off even the daughters themselves from their very laps,
pirate, as you like? am I to suppose that you have homes, that you have parents, 50
you who, on an unspeakable raft, are fed only by rapines and by savage winter, and whom—so that we may believe you yourselves—
your own king dashed upon the sea and forbade to return,
of course so that he might get possession of the gold of the Aeolian sheep?

ante meus caesa descendet Caucasus umbra 55
ac prior Haemonias repetet super aequora praedas,
ante ego cum vittis cernam feralibus Hellen.
si tamen his aliter perstas non cedere terris
teque pudor cassi reditus movet ac latet una
nescioquid plus puppe viris, haud ipse morabor 60

before my Caucasus will sink with its felled shadow, 55
and sooner will Haemonian raids be renewed over the waters,
before that I shall behold Helle with funereal fillets. If, however, you persist otherwise, in not yielding these lands,
and shame of an empty return moves you, and along with it there lurks on the ship for the men some I-know-not-what more,
I myself will not delay. 60

quae petitis; modo nostra prior tu perfice iussa.
Martius ante urbem longis iacet horridus annis
campus et ardentes ac me quoque vomere presso,
me quoque cunctantes interdum agnoscere tauri.
his magis atque magis rabiem nunc nostra senectus 65
luxuriemque dedit solitoque superbior ignis
ore fremit.

what you seek; only do you first accomplish our orders.
The Field of Mars before the city lies grim through long years
and the blazing bulls—and me too, when the ploughshare is pressed—
the bulls, hesitating, sometimes recognize me.
To these our old age now has given more and more rage and luxuriance 65
and the fire, prouder than usual, roars from the mouth.

succede meae, fortissime, laudi
et nostros recole, hospes, agros! nec semina derunt,
quae prius ipse dabam, et messes, quas solus obibam.
consiliis nox una satis tecumque retracta 70
cumque tuis haec iussa deis, ac siquid in isto est
robore praedicti venies in rura laboris.

succeed to my glory, bravest one,
and, guest, cultivate our fields anew! nor will seeds be lacking,
which formerly I myself supplied, and the harvests, which I alone would go about.
one night is enough for counsels, reconsidered with you, 70
and, together with your gods, these commands; and if there is anything in that
robustness, you will come into the fields of the predicted labor.

ipse incertus adhuc tenebris te protinus illis
involvi flammisque velim, durare parumper
an magis, everso iacias dum semina campo, 75

I myself, still uncertain, would straightway wish you to be involved in those darknesses and in flames, to endure for a little while or rather,
until you cast the seeds upon the overturned field, 75

ac tibi Cadmei dum dentibus exeat hydri
miles et armata florescant pube novales.'
      Filia prima trucis vocem mirata tyranni
haesit et ad iuvenem pallentia rettulit ora
contremuitque metu <ne> nescius audeat hospes                    80
seque miser ne posse putet. perstrinxerat horror
ipsum etiam et maesta stabat defixus in ira.
non ita Tyrrhenus stupet Ionius<que> magis<ter>
qui iam te, Tiberine, tuens clarumque serena
arce pharon praeceps subito nusquam ostia, nusquam                    85
Ausoniam videt et saevas accedere Syrtes.

and for you, until from the teeth of the Cadmean serpent there come forth a soldier, and the fallows bloom with armed youth.'
The daughter, first, amazed at the voice of the savage tyrant,
hesitated and turned her pale face toward the young man,
and she trembled with fear lest the unknowing guest dare,80
and, poor wretch, lest he think himself able. A shudder had even
struck him too, and he stood, gloomy, fixed in anger.
Not so does a Tyrrhene Ionian master
who now, gazing on you, Tiber, and the bright pharos on the clear
citadel, headlong suddenly sees nowhere mouths, nowhere Ausonia,85
and sees the savage Syrtes drawing near.

par tum tamen infando quae det responsa tyranno
colligit et tandem obtutu consurgit ab alto.
'non' ait 'hos reditus, non hanc, Aeeta, dedisti
spem Minyis cum prima tuis pro moenibus arma 90

yet in part, however, she gathers what responses she should give to the unspeakable tyrant,
and at length she rises from her deep gaze.
'not,' she says, 'not these returns, not this hope, Aeetes, did you give
to the Minyans when first their arms before your walls 90

induimus. quo versa fides? quos vestra volutant
iussa dolos?

we have undertaken. To what has faith been turned? What deceits do your commands revolve?

alium hic Pelian, alia aequora cerno.
quin agite [et] hoc omnes odiisque urgete tyranni
imperiisque caput: numquam mihi dextera nec spes
defuerit. mos iussa pati nec cedere duris.                    95
unum oro, seu me illa suis seges obruet hastis
hauriet adverso seu crastinus ignis hiatu,
nuntius hinc saevas Peliae mittatur ad aures
hic periisse viros et me, si vestra fuisset
ulla fides, reducem patriae potuisse referri.'                    100
      Talibus attonitos dictis natamque patremque
linquit et infida praeceps prorumpit ab aula.

here I see another Pelias, other seas.
nay come, [and] all of you with the tyrant’s hatreds and commands press this head: my right hand and my hope shall never fail me. It is my custom to endure commands and not to yield to hardships.                    95
one thing I beg, whether that crop will overwhelm me with its own spears,
or whether tomorrow’s fire will gulp me with an opposing gape,
let a messenger from here be sent to the savage ears of Pelias,
that here the men have perished and that I—if there had been any faith in you—could have been brought back as a returnee to my fatherland.'                    100
      With such words he leaves the daughter and the father thunderstruck and headlong bursts out from the faithless hall.

at trepida et medios inter deserta parentes
virgo silet nec fixa solo servare parumper
lumina nec potuit maestos non flectere vultus 105

but the maiden, trembling and forsaken in the midst of her parents,
is silent, nor could she keep her eyes fixed on the ground for a little while,
nor could she not turn her sad features. 105

respexitque fores et adhuc invenit euntem.
visus et heu miserae tunc pulchrior hospes amanti
discedens; tales umeros, ea terga relinquit.
illa domum atque ipsos paulum procedere postes
optat, at ardentes tenet intra limina gressus.                    110
qualis ubi extremas Io vaga sentit harenas
fertque refertque pedem, tumido quam cogit Erinys
ire mari Phariaeque vocant trans aequora matres,
circuit haud aliter foribusque impendet apertis
an melior Minyas revocet pater, oraque quaerens                    115
hospitis aut solo maeret defecta cubili
aut venit in carae gremium refugitque sororis
atque loqui conata silet rursusque recedens
quaerit, ut Aeaeis hospes consederit oris
Phrixus, ut aligeri Circen rapuere dracones.                    120

and she looked back at the doors and still finds him going.
and alas the guest, departing, then seemed more beautiful to the wretched lover;
such shoulders, such a back he leaves behind.
she wishes that her home and the very doorposts themselves might advance a little,
but she holds her blazing steps within the threshold.                    110
just as when wandering Io feels the farthest sands
and sets and resets her step, whom the Erinys forces
to go upon the swollen sea, and the Pharian mothers call across the waters,
she circles no otherwise and hangs at the open doors,
whether a better father of the Minyae might call him back, and seeking the face                    115
of the guest, or, spent, she mourns the guest’s couch left lonely,
or she comes into her dear sister’s lap and takes refuge again,
and, trying to speak, is silent, and again withdrawing
she asks how the guest Phrixus settled on the Aeaean shores,
how the winged dragons snatched Circe.                    120

tum comitum visu fruitur miseranda suarum
implerique nequit subitoque parentibus haeret
blandior et patriae circumfert oscula dextrae.
sic adsueta toris et mensae dulcis erili
aegra nova iam peste canis rabieque futura 125
ante fugam totos lustrat queribunda penates.
tandem etiam molli semet sic increpat ira:
'pergis,' ait 'demens, teque illius angit imago
curaque, qui profuga forsan tenet alta carina
quique meum patrias referet nec nomen ad urbes? 130
quid me autem sic ille movet, superetne labores
an cadat et tanto turbetur Graecia luctu?

then the pitiable one enjoys the sight of her own companions
and cannot be filled, and suddenly she clings to her parents,
more coaxing, and she carries kisses around to her father's right hand.
thus, a dog accustomed to the beds and the master's sweet table,
sick now with a new pest and with rabies to come, 125
before its flight circles all the Penates, querulous.
at length even thus she chides herself with gentle anger:
'do you persist,' she says, 'madwoman, and does the image of him
and care for him distress you, he who perhaps holds aloft the fugitive keel
and who will not carry back my name to the cities of my fatherland? 130
why, moreover, does that man so move me, whether he overcome his labors
or fall, and Greece be troubled with so great mourning?'

saltem, fata virum si iam suprema ferebant,
iussus ad ignotos potius foret ire tyrannos
o utinam et tandem non hac moreretur in urbe! 135

at least, if the fates were now bearing the man's final doom,
he should rather have been bidden to go to unknown tyrants—
O would that at last he would not die in this city! 135

namque et sidereo nostri de sanguine Phrixi
dicitur et caram vidi indoluisse sororem
seque ait has iussis actum miser ire per undas.
at redeat quocumque modo meque ista precari
nesciat atque meum non oderit ille parentem.' 140
dixerat haec stratoque graves proiecerat artus,
si veniat miserata quies, cum saevior ipse
turbat agitque sopor; supplex hinc sternitur hospes,
hinc pater. illa nova rumpit formidine somnos
erigiturque toro.

for indeed he too is said to be from the sidereal blood of our Phrixus,
and I saw my dear sister to have grieved,
and he says that, a wretch, he was driven by orders to go through these waves.
yet let him return in whatever way, and let her not know to pray those things
against me, and may he not hate my parent.' 140
she had said these things and had cast her heavy limbs upon the couch,
if compassionate rest might come, when harsher slumber itself
disturbs and drives her; here the guest is laid low as a suppliant,
there the father. she breaks her sleep with new fear
and is raised from the couch.

famulas carosque penates 145
agnoscit, modo Thessalicas raptata per urbes:
turbidus ut poenis caecisque pavoribus ensem
corripit et saevae ferit agmina matris Orestes;
ipsum angues, ipsum horrisoni quatit ira flagelli
atque iterum infestae se fervere caede Lacaenae 150

she recognizes her maidservants and dear Penates 145
just now rapt through Thessalian cities: as Orestes, turbid with punishments and blind panics,
snatches a sword and strikes the battalions of his savage mother; the snakes themselves, the wrath itself of the dread‑sounding scourge shakes him,
and that he is again seething with the slaughter of the hostile Laconian woman. 150

credit agens falsaque redit de strage dearum
fessus et in miserae conlabitur ora sororis.
His ubi nequiquam nutantem Colchida curis
Iuno videt necdum extremo parere furori
non iam mentitae vultum vocemque resumit 155
Chalciopes. quando ardor hebet leviorque pudori
mensque obnixa malo, tenues sublimis in auras
tollitur et fulvo Venerem vestigat Olympo.

he believes as he acts, and returns from a false slaughter of the goddesses
weary, and collapses upon the face of his wretched sister.
When Juno sees the Colchian wavering with these cares in vain
and not yet yielding to utter fury,
she no longer resumes the face and voice of feigned Chalciope, 155
since her ardor grows dull, and her mind, gentler to modesty,
striving against the ill, aloft is lifted into the thin airs
and on tawny Olympus she tracks down Venus.

'sum memor ut ~tecum~ mecum partita laborem.
illa nimis sed dura manet conversaque in iram 160
et furias dolet ac me nunc decepta reliquit.
i precor atque istum quo me frustratur amorem
vince ~precor~ patriis ut tandem evadere tectis
audeat atque meum casu defendere ab omni
Aesoniden.

'I am mindful that, ~with you~ with me, she shared the labor.
but she remains too hard and converted to ire 160
and she grieves her furies and now, deceived, has left me.
go, I pray, and overcome that love by which she frustrates me,
overcome, ~I pray~, so that at last she may dare to escape the paternal roofs
and to defend my Aesonid from every mishap.

quis illa sacris, quo freta veneno! 165

What is she in her sacred rites, on what venom relying! 165

illum etiam totis adstantem noctibus anguem,
qui nemus omne suum quique aurea (respice porro)
vellera tot spiris circum, tot ductibus implet,
fallat et in somnos ingenti solvat ab orno.
haec tibi nunc, Furiis atque ipsi cetera mando.'                    170
      Tum Venus aligerum mater sic fatur Amorum:
'nec tibi cum primos adgressa es flectere sensus
virginis ignotaque animum contingere cura
defuimus, data continuo <quin> cingula soli
nostra tibi, quis mota loco labefactaque cessit.                    175
haud satis est, sed me ipsa opus et cunctantia poscunt
pectora me dubiusque pudor. iam foedera faxo
Aesonii petat ipsa viri metuatque morari.

that serpent too, standing by through whole nights,
who fills all his grove, and who the golden (look ahead)
fleece he fills with so many coils, so many windings, encircling,
deceive and loosen into sleep from the mighty ash.
These things to you now; and the rest I entrust to the Furies and to himself.'                    170
      Then Venus, mother of the winged Loves, thus speaks:
'nor were we lacking to you when you first set about to bend the maiden’s senses
and to touch her mind with an unknown care;
our girdles were given straightway <quin> to you alone,
by which, moved from her place and shaken, she yielded.                    175
it is not enough, but there is need of me myself, and the hesitating
breast and a doubtful pudor demand me. Now I will make
that she herself seek the bonds of the Aesonian man and fear to delay.

tu fac luciferae citus ad delubra Dianae
deveniat, sacras solita est ubi fundere taedas 180

you see to it that he swiftly comes to the shrines of light-bearing Diana,
where she is wont to pour forth sacred torches 180

Colchis et aequali dominam lustrare caterva.
nec te nunc Hecates subeat metus aut mea forte
impediat ne coepta time. quin audeat opto:
continuo transibit amor cantuque trilingui
ipsam flammiferos cogam compescere tauros 185
amplexumque pati.' volucrem tunc aspicit Irin
festinamque iubet monitis parere Diones
et iuvenem Aesonium praedicto sistere luco.

and let the Colchian maiden visit her mistress with an equal retinue.
nor let fear of Hecate come upon you now, or perchance my power
hinder you, so that you fear your undertakings. Nay, let her dare, I desire:
straightway love will cross over, and by a trilingual chant
I will compel the girl herself to restrain the fire-bearing bulls 185
and to endure an embrace.' Then she looks upon winged Iris
and bids the hasty one to obey Dione’s counsels,
and to set the Aesonian youth in the foretold grove.

protinus hinc Iris Minyas, Cytherea petivit
Colchida, Caucaseis speculatrix Iuno resedit                    190
rupibus attonitos Aeaea in moenia vultus
speque metuque tenens et adhuc ignara futuri.
      Vix primas occulta Venus prospexerat arces,
virginis ecce novus mentem perstringere languor
incipit, ingeminant commotis questibus aestus.                    195

straightway from here Iris sought the Minyae, Cytherea sought the Colchian; Juno, as a watcher, sat down on Caucasian crags                    190
holding her thunderstruck looks toward the Aeaean walls, keeping both hope and fear, and still ignorant of the future.
      Scarcely had hidden Venus looked forth upon the first citadels,
behold, a new languor begins to strike through the maiden’s mind,
the surges redouble with agitated complaints.                    195

ergo iterum sensus varios super hospite volvens
maeret et absenti nequiquam talia fatur:
'si tibi Thessalicis, nunc si tua forte venenis
mater et heu siqua est posset succurrere coniunx!
quidne tuos virgo possim nisi flere labores?                    200
hoc satis ipse ~etiam spectare supremos~                    201a
ei mihi, ne casus etiam spectare supremos                    201b
atque iterum durae cogar comes ire sorori!
et nunc ille sua non quemquam sorte moveri,
non ullum meminisse putat cumque omnibus odit
me quoque.

therefore again, revolving various feelings about the guest,
she mourns and to the absent man vainly speaks such things:
'if for you by Thessalian poisons, now if perhaps by your own,
your mother—and alas, if there is any—your wife could succor!
what, as a maiden, can I do for your labors except weep?                    200
this at least I myself ~even to behold the utmost~                    201a
ah me, lest I should even behold the utmost disasters                    201b
and be forced again to go as companion to my harsh sister!
and now he thinks that by his own lot no one is moved,
he thinks no one remembers, and along with all he hates
me too.

siquando fuerit tamen ulla potestas 205
illum ego qui diris cinis ultimus haeserit arvis
ossaque quis tauri saevusque pepercerit ignis
componam sedem<que> dabo. fas tunc mihi manes
dilexisse viri tumuloque has reddere curas.'
Dixerat. ecce toro Venus improvisa resedit, 210

if ever, however, there shall be any power 205
that man I—I will lay him to rest, whose last ash has clung to the dread fields,
and whose bones the bull and the savage fire shall have spared;
and I will give a resting-place. Then it will be right for me
to have loved the man’s manes and to render these cares to his tomb.'
She had spoken. Lo, upon the couch Venus, unforeseen, sat down, 210

sicut erat mutata deam mentitaque pictis
vestibus et magica Circen Titanida virga.
illa, velut lenti fallatur imagine somni,
sic oculos incerta tenet magnique sororem
paulatim putat esse patris. tum flebile gaudens 215
prosiluit saevaeque ultro tulit oscula divae
ac prior: 'o tandem, vix tandem reddita Circe
dura tuis, quae te biiugis serpentibus egit par
hinc fuga quaeve fuit patriis mora gratior oris?

sicut erat mutata deam mentitaque pictis
garments and with the magical wand, Circe the Titanid.
she, as if she were deceived by the image of a lingering dream,
thus holds her eyes uncertain, and little by little thinks her to be the sister
of her mighty father. then, rejoicing tearfully, 215
she leapt forth and of her own accord bore kisses to the savage goddess,
and first: 'O at last, scarcely at last returned, Circe,
hard to your own, what drove you with two-yoked serpents? Was there an equal
flight from here, or what delay was more pleasing at the fatherland’s shores?

ante et Thessalicae Phasin petiere carinae 220
perque tot infelix frustra vada venit Iason
quam patriae te movit amor.' tum cetera rumpit
occurritque Venus: 'tu nunc mihi causa viarum
sola, tuae venio iam pridem ignava iuventae.
cetera parce queri neu me meliora secutam 225

before even the Thessalian keels sought the Phasis 220
and through so many shallows unhappy Jason came in vain,
than the love of your fatherland moved you.' Then she breaks off the rest
and Venus runs up: 'You now are to me the sole cause of my journeys;
I come for your long-idle youth. Spare to complain of the rest, nor blame me, having pursued better things 225

argue; quippe etiam reputentur munera divum.
omnibus hunc potius communem animantibus orbem
communes et crede deos. patriam inde vocato
qua redit itque dies, nec nos, o nata, malignus
clauserit hoc uno semper sub frigore mensis. 230
fas mihi non habiles, fas et tibi linquere Colchos.

argue; indeed let the gifts of the gods also be reckoned.
rather deem this world common to all living creatures,
and believe the gods common too. Call as fatherland from there
where day returns and goes, nor let a grudging
month, O daughter, have shut us always beneath the cold of this one. 230
it is right by divine law for me to leave lands not suitable, and it is right for you to leave the Colchians.

et nunc Ausonii coniunx ego regia Pici
nec mihi flammiferis horrent ibi pascua tauris
meque vides Tusci dominam maris: at tibi quinam
Sauromatae, miseranda, proci? cui vadis Hibero, 235
ei mihi, vel saevo coniunx non una Gelono?'
Illa deae contra iamdudum spernere voces.
'non ita me immemorem magnae Perseidos,' inquit
'cernis ut infelix thalamos ego cogar in illos.

and now I am the royal consort of Ausonian Picus
nor there do the pastures bristle for me with flame-bearing bulls,
and you see me the mistress of the Tuscan sea: but for you, pitiable one, what
Sauromatian suitors? to what Hiberus are you going, 235
alas, or a wife not the only one of savage Gelonus?'
She, in reply, had long been scorning the goddess’s words.
'You do not see me so unmindful of great Perseis,' she says,
'that I, unfortunate, should be compelled into those bridal chambers.

i precor atque illum pro me dimitte timorem. 240

go, I pray, and dismiss that fear for me. 240

sed magis his miseram, quando potes, eripe curis
unde metus aestusque mihi quaeque aspera, mater,
perpetior dubiae iamdudum incendia mentis.
nulla quies animo, nullus sopor, arida ~menti~.
quaere malis nostris requiem mentemque repone, 245
redde diem noctemque mihi, da prendere vestes
somniferas ipsaque oculos componere virga.
tu quoque nil, mater, prodes mihi; fortior ante
sola fui.

but rather, since you can, snatch me, wretched, from these cares
whence I undergo fears and burnings and whatever asperities, mother,
I have long now endured the conflagrations of a wavering mind.
no rest for the spirit, no sleep, parched ~menti~.
seek a requiem for our ills and re-set my mind, 245
restore day and night to me, grant me to grasp the somniferous garments
and with your very wand to compose my eyes. you too, mother, profit me nothing;
I was stronger before, alone.

tristes thalamos infestaque cerno
omnia, vipereos ipsi tibi surgere crines.'                    250
talia verba dabat conlapsaque flebat iniquae
in Veneris Medea sinus pestemque latentem
ossibus atque imi monstrabat pectoris ignem.
      Occupat amplexu Venus et furialia figit
oscula permixtumque odiis inspirat amorem                    255

I discern sad bridal-chambers and all things hostile, I discern viperous locks rising upon you yourself.' 250
Such words she was uttering, and, collapsed, Medea was weeping in the bosom of iniquitous Venus, and she showed the latent pest within her bones and the fire of her inmost breast.
Venus seizes her with an embrace and fixes Furial kisses, and she breathes in love commingled with hatreds 255

dumque illam variis maerentem vocibus ambit
inque alio sermone tenet 'quin hoc' ait 'audi
atque attolle genas.' lacrimisque haec infit obortis:
'cum levis a superis ad te modo laberer auris
forte ratem primo fulgentem litore cerno 260
qualem nostra suo numquam dimittere portu
vellet adhuc omnes quae detinet insula nautas.
unus ibi ante alios qui tum mihi pulchrior omnes
visus erat, longeque ducem mirabar et ipsa,
advolat atque unam comitum ratus esse tuarum 265
"per tibi siquis," ait "morituri protinus horror
et quem non meritis videas occurrere monstris,
haec precor, haec dominae referas ad virginis aurem.
tu fletus ostende meos.

and while she encircles her, grieving, with various words,
and holds her in another discourse: 'Come now, hear this
and lift up your cheeks.' And with tears welling up she begins thus:
'when, a light breeze from above, I was just now gliding down to you,
by chance I espy a ship gleaming at the outer shore, 260
such a one as our island—which detains all sailors—would not yet ever wish
to let go from its own port. There, one before the others, who then had seemed
to me fairer than all, and I myself admired the leader from afar,
flies up and, thinking me to be one of your companions,
"by you, if any sudden horror of one about to die,265
and of one whom you see encountering monsters not by his deserts, moves you,
this I pray—carry these things to the ear of the maiden lady.
Do you show my tears.

illi has ego voces,
qua datur, hasque manus, ut possum, a litore tendo. 270

to her I extend these words, by whatever way it is granted, and these hands, as I can, from the shore. 270

ipsae quas mecum per mille pericula traxi
defecere deae. spes et via sola salutis
quam dederit, si forte dabit. ne vota repellat,
ne mea totque animas, quales nec viderit ultra,
dic precor auxilio iuvet atque haec nomina servet. 275
ei mihi quod nullas hic possum exsolvere grates! 284
at tamen hoc saeva corpus de morte receptum,
hanc animam sciat esse suam!

the goddesses themselves, whom I dragged with me through a thousand perils,
have failed me. The hope and the sole way of salvation
which she might grant—if perchance she will grant it. Let her not repel the vows,
let her not, and say, I pray, that she help with aid both my vows and so many lives, such as she will not have seen hereafter,
and preserve these names. 275
ah me, that I can here render no thanks! 284
and yet let the fierce one know this body recovered from death,
this spirit to be hers!

miserebitur ergo?
dic" ait "an potius--?" strictumque ruebat in ensem.
promisi (ne falle precor) cumque ipsa moverer
adloquio casuque viri te passa rogari
sum potius: tu laude nova, tu supplice digno 290

Will he have pity then?
"Say," he says, "or rather—?" and he was rushing upon the drawn sword.
I promised (do not fail me, I pray), and since I myself was moved
by the address and the mischance of the man, I have allowed you rather to be entreated
you win new praise, you be worthy of the suppliant 290

dignior es et fama meis iam parta venenis.
si Pelopis duros prior Hippodamia labores                    276
expediit totque ora simul vulgata procorum
respiciens tandem patrios exhorruit axes,
si dedit ipsa neci fratrem Minoia virgo,
cur non hospitibus fas sit succurrere dignis                    280
te quoque et Aeaeos iubeas mitescere campos?
occidat aeterna tandem Cadmeia morte
iam seges et viso fumantes hospite tauri!'
      Torserat illa gravi iamdudum lumina vultu                    292

you are more worthy, and of a fame already won by my poisons.
if earlier Hippodamia expedited Pelops’s harsh labors                    276
and, looking back at once upon the so many faces, publicized, of the suitors,
at last shuddered at her father’s axles,
if the Minos-born maiden herself gave her brother to death,
why should it not be right to succor worthy guests, and bid that you too and the Aeaean fields grow gentle?                    280
let at last the Cadmean crop fall by eternal death now,
and let the bulls, at the guest being seen, smoke!'
      She had long since been turning her eyes with a grave countenance                    292

vix animos dextramque tenens quin ipsa loquentis
iret in ora deae; tanta pudor aestuat ira.
iamque toro trepidas infelix obruit aures                    296
verba cavens; horror molles invaserat annos.                    295
nec quo ferre fugam nec quo se vertere posset                    297

scarcely restraining her spirits and her right hand from going into the lips of the speaking goddess; so great does shame seethe with anger.
and now upon the couch the unhappy one buries her trembling ears, shunning the words;                    296
dread had invaded her tender years.                    295
nor where to take flight nor where she could turn herself                    297

prensa videt. rupta condi tellure premique
iamdudum cupit ac diras evadere voces.
illa sequi iubet et portis exspectat in ipsis 300
saevus Echionia ceu Penthea Bacchus in aula
deserit infectis per roscida cornua vittis,
cum tenet ille deum pudibundaque tegmina matris
tympanaque et mollem subito miser accipit hastam.

she sees herself caught. With the earth broken, she has long longed to be hidden and pressed down, and to escape the dire voices.
she bids her follow and waits at the very gates 300
like when savage Bacchus in the Echionian hall deserts Pentheus,
letting the fillets, stained, slip down along his dewy horns,
when that man grasps the god and the bashful coverings of his mother
and the tympana, and wretched, suddenly receives the soft spear.

haud aliter deserta pavet perque omnia circum 305
fert oculos tectisque negat procedere virgo.
contra saevus amor, contra periturus Iason
urget et auditae crescunt in pectore voces.
heu quid agat?

not otherwise the deserted one trembles and all around 305
she casts her eyes, and the maiden refuses to proceed from the house.
against her savage Love, against her presses Jason doomed to perish,
and the voices heard grow in her breast.
alas, what is she to do?

videt externo se prodere patrem
dura viro, famam scelerum iamque ipsa suorum 310

she sees that she is betraying her father to a foreign man
unyielding to the man, the very fame of her crimes, and now even herself 310

prospicit et questu superos questuque fatigat
Tartara. pulsat humum manibusque immurmurat uncis
noctis eram Ditemque ciens, succurrere tandem
morte velint ipsumque simul demittere leto
quem propter furit. absentem saevissima poscit                    315
nunc Pelian, tanta iuvenem qui perderet ira:
saepe suas misero promittere destinat artes,
denegat atque una potius decernit ~in ira~
ac neque tam turpi cessuram semet amori
proclamat neque opem ignoto viresque daturam                    320
atque toro proiecta manet, cum visa vocari
rursus et impulso sonuerunt cardine postes.
      Ergo ubi nescioquo penitus se numine vinci
sentit et abscisum quicquid pudor ante monebat,
tum thalami penetrale petit quae maxima norat                    325

she looks out and with lament she wearies the gods above and with lament Tartarus.
she strikes the ground and with hooked hands she mutters under her breath,
calling Night and Dis, that at last they might succor
with death, and at the same time send to death that very man
on account of whom she rages. the most savage she now calls upon the absent Pelias,                    315
who would destroy the youth with such wrath:
often she resolves to promise her arts to the wretched man,
she refuses and at the same time decides rather ~in anger~
and she proclaims that she will not yield herself to so base a love
nor give aid and strength to an unknown man,                    320
and cast upon the couch she remains, when she seemed to be called
again and the doorposts resounded with the hinge thrust.
      Therefore when she feels herself deep within to be overcome by I-know-not-what numen
and whatever modesty had previously warned cut off,
then she seeks the inner sanctum of the bridal chamber, she who had known the greatest.                    325

auxilia Haemoniae quaerens pro rege carinae.
utque procul magicis spirantia tecta venenis
et saevae patuere fores oblataque contra
omnia quae ponto, quae manibus eruit imis
et quae sanguineo lunae destrinxit ab ore 330
'tune sequeris' ait 'quidquam aut patiere pudendum
cum tibi tot mortes scelerisque brevissima tanti
effugia?' haec dicens qua non velocior ulla
pestis erat toto nequiquam lumine lustrat
cunctaturque super morituraque colligit iras. 335
o nimium iucunda dies, quam cara sub ipsa
morte magis! stetit <et> sese mirata furentem est.

seeking Haemonian aids on behalf of the king of the keel.
and as from afar the roofs breathing with magical venoms
and the savage doors lay open, and set opposite were
all the things which from the sea, which by her hands she has dug up from the lowest depths,
and which she has drawn off from the blood-stained face of the moon, 330
“do you then pursue anything, or will you endure what is shameful,” she says,
“when you have so many deaths and the very briefest escapes
from a crime so great?” Saying these things—than whom no pestilence
was swifter in the whole world—she scans with her eye in vain
and she hesitates over it, and, about to die, she gathers her wraths. 335
O day excessively delightful, how dear beneath death itself, and more so!
she stood <and> marveled at herself raging.

'occidis heu; primo potes hoc durare sub aevo?
nec tu lucis' ait 'nec videris ulla iuventae
gaudia, non dulces fratris pubescere malas? 340

'you are perishing, alas; can you endure this under your first age?
nor of the light,' she says, 'nor will you behold any joys
of youth— not the sweet cheeks of your brother to pubesce?' 340

hunc quoque, quicumque est, crudelis, Iasona nescis
morte perire tua, qui te nunc invocat unam,
qui rogat et nostro quem primum in litore vidi?
cur tibi fallaces placuit coniungere dextras
tunc, pater, atque istis iuvenem non perdere monstris 345
protinus? ipsa etiam, fateor, tunc ipsa volebam.

this one too, whoever he is—cruel one—do you not know Jason to be perishing by your death,
who now invokes you alone,
who begs, and whom I first saw on our shore?
why did it please you then, father, to join deceptive right hands,
and not at once destroy the youth with those monsters 345
forthwith? I too—even I—confess, I then wanted it.

testor cara tuas Circe Titania voces,
te ducente sequor, tua me, grandaeva, fatigant
consilia et monitis cedo minor.' haec ubi fata
rursus ad Haemonii iuvenis curamque metumque 350
vertitur, hunc solum propter seu vivere gaudens
sive mori, quodcumque velit. maiora precatur
carmina, maiores Hecaten immittere vires
nunc sibi, nec notis stabat contenta venenis.
cingitur inde sinus et, qua sibi fida magis vis 355

I call to witness your dear Titanian voices, Circe,
with you leading I follow; your counsels, ancient one, weary me,
and to your admonitions I yield as the lesser.' When she had spoken these,
she turns again to the care and the fear for the Haemonian youth, 350
rejoicing either to live for him alone
or to die, whatever he should wish. She prays for greater
incantations, that Hecate should send greater powers
to her now, nor did she stand content with familiar venoms.
then she girds her folds, and where the power is to her more trusty 355

nulla, Prometheae florem de sanguine fibrae
Caucaseum promit nutritaque gramina monti,
quae sacer ille nives inter tristesque pruinas
durat alitque cruor cum viscere vultur adeso
tollitur e scopulis et rostro inrorat aperto. 360
idem nec longi languescit finibus aevi
immortale virens, idem stat fulmina contra
salvus et in mediis florescunt ignibus herbae.
prima Hecate Stygiis duratam fontibus harpen
intulit et validas scopulis effodit aristas, 365
mox famulae monstrata seges, quae lampade Phoebes
sub decima iuga feta metit saevitque per omnes
reliquias saniemque dei. gemit inritus ille
Colchidos ora tuens.

with no delay, she brings forth the Caucasian flower from the blood of Promethean fibers,
and the grasses nourished on the mountain, which that sacred vulture
endures and nurses amid snows and gloomy frosts, when, the entrail gnawed,
the gore is lifted from the crags and he sprinkles it with open beak; 360
the same plant neither languishes at the bounds of long age,
immortally verdant; the same stands safe against thunderbolts,
and in the midst of fires the herbs blossom.
Hecate first brought in a harpe hardened in Stygian springs
and dug sturdy ears from the crags, 365
soon the crop was shown to the handmaid, who, big with seed
under the tenth yokes of Phoebus’ lamp, reaps and rages through all
the remnants and the sanies of the god. He groans in vain,
gazing toward the shore of Colchis.

totos tunc contrahit artus
~monte~ dolor cunctaeque tremunt sub falce catenae. 370

then he contracts all his limbs
pain from the ~mountain~, and all the chains tremble beneath the sickle. 370

Talibus infelix contra sua regna venenis
induitur noctique tremens infertur opacae.
dat dextram blandisque ~pavens vocem Venus osquam~
adloquiis iunctoque trahit per moenia passu.
qualis adhuc teneros ubi primum pallida fetus 375
mater ab excelso produxit in aera nido
hortaturque sequi brevibusque insurgere pinnis;
illos caerulei primus ferit horror Olympi
iamque redire rogant adsuetaque quaeritur arbor.

With such poisons the unhappy one is arrayed against her own realm,
and, trembling, is borne into shadowy night.
she gives her right hand, and with soothing ~trembling gives voice, Venus, for a kiss~
speeches, and with a joined step she draws him through the walls.
just as, when for the first time a pale mother has led her still-tender 375
offspring out into the air from a lofty nest
and urges them to follow and to rise on their short wings;
them the first azure dread of Olympus strikes,
and now they beg to return, and the accustomed tree is sought.

haud aliter caecae per moenia deficit urbis 380
incedens horret<que> domos Medea silentes
hic iterum extremae nequiquam in limine portae
substitit atque iterum fletus animique soluti
respexitque deam paulumque his vocibus haesit:
'ipse rogat certe meque ipse implorat Iason? 385

Not otherwise through the walls of the blind city she falters 380
as she advances, and Medea shudders at the silent houses;
here again, in vain, on the threshold of the farthest gate
she halted, and again, with tears and spirit loosened,
she looked back at the goddess and lingered a little on these words:
'Is it indeed he himself who asks me, and he himself implores me—Jason?' 385

nullane culpa subest, labes non ulla pudoris,
nullus amor? nec turpe viro servire precanti?'
illa nihil contra vocesque abrumpit inanes.
et iamiam magico per opaca silentia Colchis
coeperat ire sono montanaque condere vultus 390
numina cumque suis averti fontibus amnes.

Is there then no fault beneath, no stain of modesty at all,
no love? nor is it base to serve a man who is begging?'
she says nothing in reply and breaks off her empty words.
and now already the Colchian through the opaque silences with magical sound
had begun to go, and to make the mountain numina bury their faces 390
and the rivers to be averted from their own fountains.

iam stabulis gregibusque pavor strepitusque sepulchris
inciderat, stupet ipsa gravi nox tardior umbra.
iamque tremens longe sequitur Venus. utque sub altas
pervenere trabes divaeque triformis in umbram 395
hic subito ante oculos nondum speratus Iason
emicuit viditque prior conterrita virgo.

Already upon the stables and the flocks terror and a clamor had fallen upon the sepulchers;
the night itself stands amazed, slower with its weighty shadow.
And now trembling Venus follows from afar. And when they came beneath the high beams
and into the shadow of the three-formed goddess, 395
here suddenly before their eyes Jason, not yet looked-for,
flashed forth, and the frightened maiden saw him first.

atque hinc se profugam volucri Thaumantias ala
sustulit, inde Venus dextrae dilapsa tenenti.
obvius ut sera cum se sub nocte magistris 400

and from here the Thaumantian maid lifted herself, a fugitive, on swift wing,
and thence Venus, slipping from the right hand that was holding her.
just as, late under night, when one comes face-to-face with his masters 400

impingit pecorique pavor qualesve profundum
per chaos occurrunt caecae sine vocibus umbrae,
haud secus in mediis noctis nemoris<que> tenebris
inciderant ambo attoniti iuxtaque subibant
abietibus tacitis aut immotis cyparissis                    405
adsimiles, rapidus nondum quas miscuit Auster.
      Ergo ut erat vultu defixus uterque silenti
noxque suum peragebat iter, iamiam ora levare
Aesoniden farique cupit Medea priorem.
quam simul effusis pavitantem fletibus heros                    410
flagrantesque genas vidit miserumque pudorem,
has tandem voces dedit et solatus amantem [est]
'fersne aliquam spem lucis?' ait.

panic strikes the flock and herd, or such as blind shades without voices meet through the deep chaos;
not otherwise, in the midst of the darkness of night and wood, both had collided, astonied, and they were going side by side,
like silent firs or unmoved cypresses,                    405
which the rapid South Wind (Auster) has not yet mingled.
      Therefore, as each was fixed in a silent countenance,
and night was carrying on her course, now-now Medea longs to lift her face
and to speak first to the son of Aeson.
as soon as the hero saw her trembling with outpoured tears                    410
and her blazing cheeks and her wretched modesty,
at last he gave these words and consoled his lover:
‘do you bear any hope of light?’ he says.

'miserata laborem
nempe venis? an et ipsa mea laetabere morte?
ne precor infando similem te, virgo, parenti 415

'Have you come, indeed, pitying my labor?
or will you yourself also rejoice at my death?
I pray, maiden, do not be like your unspeakable parent 415

gesseris. haud tales decet inclementia vultus.
hascine nunc grates, haec exspectata laborum
dona dari decuit?

you have borne it. Harshness does not befit such looks.
Are these then now the thanks, were these the long-expected gifts of my labors
that it was fitting to be given?

sic te sub teste remitti
fas mihi, virgo, ~tuum~? iustas da vocibus aures.
nec pater ille tuus tantis me opponere monstris 420
(quid meritum?) aut tales voluit <ex>pendere poenas.
an iacet externa quod nunc mihi cuspide Canthus
quodque meus vestris cecidit pro moenibus Iphis
aut Scythiae tanta inde manus?

thus to be sent back under your witness is it right for me, maiden, ~your~? grant just ears to my words.
nor did that father of yours wish to set me against such monsters (what have I merited?) or to <ex>pend such penalties. 420
or is it because Canthus now lies by a foreign spear for me,
and because my Iphis fell before your walls,
or that from there so great a band of Scythia?

iussisset abire
perfidus atque suis extemplo cedere regnis. 425
spem mihi promissam per quae discrimina rursus
et reddat qua lege vides. occumbere tandem
possumus idque sedet quam non quaecumque subire
patris iussa tui. numquam sine vellere abibo
hinc ego, degenerem nec tu me prima videbis.' 430

he would have ordered me to depart, the treacherous one, and straightway to retire to his own realms. 425
through what dangers again the hope promised to me—and with what condition he gives it back—you see.
at last we can meet death, and that is settled, rather than undergo whatever commands of your father.
never shall I go away from here without the Fleece, nor will you be the first to see me base-born. 430

Haec ait. illa tremens, ut supplicis aspicit ora
conticuisse viri iamque et sua verba reposci,
nec quibus incipiat demens videt ordine nec quo
quove tenus, prima cupiens effundere voce
omnia, sed nec prima pudor dat verba timenti. 435
haeret et attollens vix tandem lumina fatur:
'quid, precor, in nostras venisti, Thessale, terras?
unde mei spes ulla tibi tantosque petisti
cur non ipse tua fretus virtute labores?

He says this. She, trembling, as she beholds the countenance of the suppliant man fallen silent, and now her own words being called for,
and, distraught, she sees neither with what order she should begin nor where, nor how far, desiring with her first voice to pour out everything, but modesty does not grant first words to the fearful; 435
she hangs back, and at last, scarcely lifting her eyes, she speaks:
‘Why, I pray, have you come into our lands, Thessalian? Whence to you any hope of me, and why did you seek such great things,
why did you not yourself, relying on your own virtue, undertake the labors?’

nempe ego si patriis timuissem excedere tectis 440
occideras, nempe hanc animam cras saeva manebant
funera. Iuno ubi nunc, ubi nunc Tritonia virgo,
sola tibi quoniam tantis in casibus adsum
externae regina domus? miraris et ipse,
credo, nec agnoscunt hae nunc Aeetida silvae. 445

indeed, if I had feared to depart from my native roofs 440
you would have perished; indeed tomorrow savage funeral rites were awaiting
this soul. Where is Juno now, where now the Tritonian maiden,
since I alone am at hand for you in such perils,
the queen of an alien house? You too, I believe, are amazed,
nor do these woods now recognize the daughter of Aeetes. 445

sed fatis sum victa tuis. cape munera supplex
non mea teque iterum Pelias si perdere quaeret
inque alios casus, alias <si> mittet ad urbes,
heu formae ne crede tuae!' Titania iamque
gramina Persaeasque sinu depromere vires 450
coeperat. his iterum compellat Iasona dictis:
'si tamen aut superis aliquam spem ponis <in istis>
aut tua praesenti virtus [te] educere leto
si te forte potest, etiam nunc deprecor, hospes,
me sine et insontem misero dimitte parenti.' 455
dixerat.

but I am overcome by your fates. take, as a suppliant, these gifts— not mine; and if Pelias should seek to destroy you again, and into other misfortunes, to other cities, <if> he should send you, alas, do not trust in your beauty!' and now the Titaness had begun to draw forth from her bosom grasses and Persian potencies 450
with these words she again addresses Jason: 'if, however, you place any hope with the gods <in these>, or if your present virtue can perchance lead [you] out from death, even now I beseech, guest, allow me, and send me, innocent, to my miserable parent.' 455
she had spoken.

extemplo (neque enim <im>matura ruebant
sidera et extremum suspexerat axe Booten)
cum gemitu et multo iuveni medicamina fletu
non secus ac patriam pariter famamque decusque
obicit. ille manu subit et vim corripit omnem. 460

at once (for indeed the stars were not rushing untimely,
and Bootes had looked up from the farthest axle)
with a groan and with much weeping she throws out to the youth the medicaments,
no otherwise than as if she were setting before him his homeland, and equally his fame and honor.
he takes them up with his hand and seizes all their potency. 460

Inde ubi facta nocens et non revocabilis umquam
cessit ab ore pudor propiorque implevit Erinys,
carmina nunc totos volvit figitque per artus
Aesonidae et totum septeno murmure fertur
per clipeum atque viro graviorem reddidit hastam 465
iamque sui tauris languent absentibus ignes.
'nunc age et has' inquit 'cristas galeamque resume
quam modo funerea tenuit Discordia dextra.
hanc iace per medias, cum verteris aequora, messes.

Then, when the guilty deed and a shame never to be recalled withdrew from her lips, and the nearer Erinys filled her,
she now rolls her incantations and fixes them through all the limbs
of the Aesonid, and with a sevenfold murmur it is borne
through the shield and made the spear heavier for the man,465
and already the fires grow faint with their bulls away.
‘Now come, and take up these crests and the helmet,’ she says, ‘which just now Funeral Discord held in her right hand.
Hurl this through the midst of the harvests, when you turn the level fields.’

protinus in sese conversa furoribus ibit 470
cuncta phalanx atque ipse fremens mirabitur et me
respiciet fortasse pater.' sic deinde locuta
iam magis atque magis mentem super alta ferebat
aequora, pandentes Minyas iam vela videbat
se sine. tum vero extremo percussa dolore 475

straightway the whole phalanx, turned upon itself in furies, will go 470
and he himself, roaring, will marvel, and perhaps my
father will look back at me.' thus then having spoken
now more and more she was bearing her mind over the high seas,
she already saw the Minyae spreading sails without her.
then indeed, smitten by extreme pain 475

arripit Aesoniden dextra ac summissa profatur:
'sis memor, oro, mei, contra memor ipsa manebo,
crede, tui. quantum hinc aberis, dic quaeso, profundi?
quod caeli spectabo latus?

she seizes the Aesonid with her right hand and, in a low voice, speaks:
'be mindful, I beg, of me; in return I myself will remain mindful, believe it, of you.
how far from here, pray, will you be away across the deep?
which side of the sky shall I look toward?

sed te quoque tangat
cura mei quocumque loco, quoscumque per annos 480
atque hunc te meminisse velis et nostra fateri
munera, servatum pudeat nec virginis arte.
ei mihi, cur nulli stringunt tua lumina fletus?
an me mox merita morituram patris ab ira
dissimulas?

but may concern for me touch you also
in whatever place, through whatever years 480
and may you wish to remember this and to confess our gifts,
nor be ashamed that you were saved by a virgin’s art.
ah me, why do no tears draw your eyes tight?
or do you dissemble that I, soon and as merited, will die from my father’s wrath,
you conceal?

te regna tuae felicia gentis, 485
te coniunx natique manent; ego prodita abibo
nec queror et pro te lucem quoque laeta relinquam.'
protinus hospes ad haec (tacitis nam cantibus illum
flexerat et simili iamdudum adflarat amore)
'tune' ait 'Aesoniden quicquam te velle relicta 490

for you the fortunate realms of your people await, 485
for you a consort and sons await; I, betrayed, will depart,
nor do I complain, and for you I will gladly leave the light as well.'
straightway the guest at these words (for by silent incantations she
had bent him and had long since breathed upon him with a similar love)
'do you then,' he says, 'think the Aesonid to wish anything at all, with you left behind?' 490

credis et ulla peti sine te loca? redde tyranno
me potius, recipe ingratos atque exue cantus!
quis mihi lucis amor?

do you believe that any places can be sought without you? give me back rather to the tyrant, take back the ingrates and strip off your incantations! what love have I for the light?

patriam cur amplius optem
si non et genitor te primam amplectitur Aeson
teque tuo longe fulgentem vellere gaudens                    495
spectat et ad primos procumbit Graecia fluctus?
respice ad has voces et iam, precor, adnue, coniunx.
per te, quae superis divisque potentior imis,
perque haec, virgo, tuo redeuntia sidera nutu
atque per has nostri iuro discriminis horas:                    500
umquam ego si meriti s<im> noctis <et> immemor huius,
si te sceptra, domum, si te liquisse parentes
senseris et me iam non haec promissa tuentem,
tum me non tauros iuvet evasisse ferosque
terrigenas, tum me tectis tua turbet in ipsis                    505

why should I any longer desire my fatherland
if my father Aeson does not also embrace you first,
and, rejoicing, gaze on you gleaming from afar with your own fleece,                    495
and Greece bend down to the foremost waves?
look back to these words and now, I pray, assent, wife.
by you, who are more powerful than the gods above and the gods below,
and by these stars, maiden, returning at your nod,
and by these hours of our peril I swear:                    500
if ever I should be unmindful of the merit of this night,
if you should feel that you have left scepters and home, if you have left your parents,
and that I am now not upholding these promises,
then let it not please me to have escaped the bulls and the fierce
earth-born men; then let disaster confound me within your very house                    505

flamma tuaeque artes. nullus succurrere contra
ingrato queat et siquid tu saevius istis
adicias meque in medio terrore relinquas.'
audiit atque simul meritis periuria poenis
despondet questus semper Furor ultus amantis.                    510
      Haec ubi dicta, tamen perstant defixus uterque
et nunc ora levant audaci laeta iuventa,
ora simul totiens dulces rapientia visus,
nunc deicit vultus aeger pudor et mora dictis
redditur ac rursus conterret Iasona virgo:                    515
'accipe perdomitis quae deinde pericula tauris
et quis in Aeolio maneat te vellere custos.
nondum cuncta tibi, fateor, promissa peregi.

the flame and your arts. No one could come to help the ingrate in opposition,
and if you were to add anything more savage than these
and leave me amid terror.'
She heard, and at once the Fury—ever avenger of lovers—pledges perjuries to merited penalties,
having listened to the complaints. 510
When these things were spoken, nevertheless each stands transfixed,
and now they lift their faces, gladdened with audacious youth,
faces at once so often snatching sweet glances,
now sickly modesty casts their looks down, and a delay is rendered to words,
and again the maiden terrifies Jason:
'receive what dangers next, the bulls subdued,
and what guardian awaits you at the Aeolian fleece.
Not yet, I confess, have I fulfilled all the promises to you.

saevior ingenti Mavortis in arbore restat,
crede, labor. quem--tanta utinam fiducia nostri 520

a fiercer labor remains in the vast tree of Mars, believe it;
which—would that there were such great confidence in me— 520

sit mihi nocturnaeque Hecates--<. . . . . . .                    521a
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .> nostrique vigoris.'                    521b
dixerat utque virum doceat, quae monstra supersint,
protinus immensis recubantem anfractibus anguem
turbat et Haemonii subito ducis obicit umbram.
ille, quod haud alias, stetit et trepidantia torsit                    525
sibila seque metu postquam sua vellera circum
sustulit atque omnis spiris exhorruit arbor,
incipit inde sequi et vacuo furit ore per auras.
'quis fragor hic?

may there be for me and of nocturnal Hecate—<. . . . . . .                    521a
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .> and of our vigor.                    521b
she had spoken, and that she might teach the man what monsters remain,
straightway she disturbs the snake reclining in immense coils
and suddenly sets before it the shade of the Haemonian leader.
he, as at no other time, stood and twisted quivering hisses,                    525
and after he, in fear, had lifted himself around his own fleeces
and the whole arbor shuddered with his coils,
then he begins to pursue and rages with empty mouth through the airs.
'what crash is this?

quaenam tantae, dic, virgo, ruinae?'
exclamat stricto Aesonides stans frigidus ense. 530
illa tacet retinens tandemque ait angue represso:
'hunc tibi postremum nostri parat ira parentis,
heu miser, heu tantis iterum mihi care periclis.
o utinam [ut] nullo te sim visura labore
ipsam caeruleis squalentem nexibus ornum 535

'What so great a ruin, say, maiden?'
exclaims the son of Aeson, standing cold with drawn sword. 530
she is silent, holding back, and at length says, with the snake repressed:
'this last trial the wrath of my parent prepares for you,
alas, wretch, alas, so dear to me, again amid such great perils.
O would that I might see you with no labor,
and the ash-tree itself foul with cerulean coils.' 535

ipsaque pervigilis calcare volumina monstri.
contingat bis deinde mori!' sic fata profugit
seque sub extremis in moenia rettulit umbris.
      Et iam puniceo regem spes vana sub ortu
extulerat, quantis nox una diremerit undis                    540
Aesoniden, liberne freto iam vultus aperto
utque prius totum sileat mare, dumque ea longe
explorare ~quaeat~, contra venit Arcas Echion
dicta ferens iam Circaeis Mavortis in agris
stare virum, daret aeripedes in proelia tauros.                    545
rex 'vocor en ultro' dixit seque abripit aula
'vos mihi nunc primum ~in flammas~ invertite, tauri,
aequora, nunc totas aperite et volvite flammas.

and even I myself, ever‑wakeful, to tread the monster’s coils.
may it befall me then to die twice!’ Thus having spoken she fled
and withdrew herself within the walls beneath the farthest shadows.
And now, beneath the crimson sunrise, vain hope had lifted up the king—
by how great waves a single night had sundered Aesonides, whether he is now free on the open strait
with the face of the sea laid bare, and that, as before, the whole sea be silent; and while he from far
might explore these things ~quaeat~, there comes over against him Arcadian Echion,
bearing a report that already in the Circaean fields of Mars the man stands,
to set the bronze‑footed bulls into battle. 545
the king said, ‘Lo, I am challenged even unprovoked,’ and snatches himself from the hall:
‘you, bulls, now for me first turn the waters ~in flammas~,
waters, now open and roll out total flames.

exeat Haemonio messis memoranda colono.
tuque tuum pestem in Graium da, nata, draconem 550

Let a harvest to be remembered go forth for the Haemonian farmer.
and you, daughter, send your dragon—your pestilence—against the Greek 550

ipsius aspectu pereant in velleris, ipsa
terga mihi diros servent infecta cruores.'
fatur et effusis pandi iubet aequora tauris.
pars et Echionii subeunt immania dentis
semina, pars diri portant grave robur aratri. 555
at sua magnanimum contra Pagasaea iuventus
prosequitur stipatque ducem. tum maxima quisque
dicta dedit saevisque procul discessit ab agris.

‘let them perish at its very sight, at the fleece; let the hides themselves keep for me, stained, the dire gore.’
he speaks and orders the level plains to be opened with the bulls let loose. Part too take up the immense seeds of Echionian tooth, part carry the heavy oak of the dread plough. 555
but in turn their own Pagasaean youth accompanies and crowds round the high-souled leader. then each uttered his weightiest words and withdrew far from the savage fields.

fixerat ille gradus totoque ex agmine solus
stabat ut extremis desertus ~ab orbibus axis~, 560
quem iam lassa dies Austrique ardentis harenae
aut quem Rhipaeas exstantem rursus ad arces
nix et caerulei Boreae ferus abstulit horror;
cum subito attoniti longissima Phasidis unda
Caucaseaeque trabes omnisque Aeetia tellus 565

he had fixed his steps and, out of the whole column, stood alone
as, at the farthest limits, deserted ~by the orbs the axis~, 560
whom now the weary day and the burning sands of the South Wind,
or whom, standing out again toward the Rhipaean citadels,
the snow and the fierce dread of dark-blue Boreas has carried off;
when suddenly the far-stretching wave of thunderstruck Phasis
and the Caucasian beams and all the land of Aeetes 565

fulsit et ardentes stabula effudere tenebras.
ac velut ex una siquando nube corusci
ira Iovis torsit geminos mortalibus ignes
aut duo cum pariter ruperunt vincula venti
dantque fugam, sic tunc claustris evasit uterque 570
taurus et immani proflavit turbine flammas
arduus atque atro volvens incendia fluctu.
horruit Argoae legio ratis, horruit audax
qui modo virgineis servari cantibus Idas
flebat et invito prospexit Colchida vultu. 575
non tulit ipse moras seseque immisit Iason,
diversos postquam ire videt, galeamque minantem
quassat <et> errantem dextra ciet obvius ignem.

it flashed, and the burning stalls poured forth darkness.
and just as, if ever from a single cloud, the flashing
wrath of Jove has hurled twin fires upon mortals,
or when two winds together have burst their bonds
and give flight, so then from their enclosures each escaped, 570
the bull, and with a monstrous whirlwind he spouted flames,
towering and rolling conflagrations in a black surge.
the legion of the Argoan ship shuddered; shuddered the bold
Idas, who but now was weeping that he was being saved by maidenly songs,
and he looked upon the Colchian with an unwilling face. 575
Jason himself did not bear delays and hurled himself in,
after he sees them go apart, and he shakes his threatening helmet
and, to meet it, with his right hand calls the wandering fire on.

ut tandem stetit et torvo se lumine flexit,
qui prior adversi respexit Iasonis arma, 580

when at last he stood and with a grim eye he turned himself,
he, the first, looked back at the arms of opposing Jason, 580

cunctatus paulum subito furit. aequora non sic
in scopulos irata ruunt eademque recedunt
fracta retro. bis fulmineis se flatibus infert
obnubitque virum, sed non incendia Colchis
adspirare sinit clipeoque inliditur ignis 585
frigidus et viso pallescit flamma veneno.

having hesitated a little, suddenly he rages. The seas do not thus
rush, enraged, upon the rocks and the same retreat
shattered backward. Twice he hurls himself with fulmineous blasts
and veils the man, but the Colchian does not allow the fires
to breathe upon him, and the fire is dashed against the shield, 585
chilled, and the flame grows pale at the sight of the venom.

inicit Aesonides dextram atque ardentia vincit
cornua, dein totis propendens viribus haeret.
ille virum atque ipsam tunc te, Medea, recusans
concutit et tota nitentem carminis ira 590
portat; iners tandem gravius mugire recedens
incipit et fesso victus descendere cornu.
respicit hinc socios immania vincula poscens
Aesonides iamque ora premit trahiturque trahitque
obnixusque genu superat cogitque trementes 595

Aesonides puts forth his right hand and masters the burning horns, then, leaning with all his powers, he clings.
he, refusing the man and even you yourself then, Medea, shakes him and bears him, gleaming with the whole ire of the chant; 590
at last inert, retreating he begins to bellow more gravely and, vanquished, to descend from the wearied horn.
from here he looks back to his comrades, demanding enormous bonds; and Aesonides now presses the mouths and is dragged and drags, and by straining with his knee he overcomes and compels the trembling 595

sub iuga aena toros. alium dehinc turbida Colchis
exarmat lentumque offert timideque minantem
iamque propinquanti noctem[que] implicat. ille fatiscens
in caput inque umeros ipsa vi molis et irae
proruit.

under the brazen yokes the brawny backs. Then the agitated Colchian disarms another and offers him, slow and timidly menacing, and now, as he draws near, she entwines him in night as well. He, giving way, by the very force of mass and of wrath, pitches forward onto head and shoulders.

invadit totusque incumbit Iason                    600
desuper atque suis defixum flatibus urget
utque dedit vinclis validoque obstrinxit aratro
suscitat ipse genu saevaque agit insuper hasta,
non secus a medio quam si telluris hiatu
terga recentis equi primumque invasit habenis                    605
murmur et in summa Lapithes apparuit Ossa.
      Ille, velut campos Libyes ac pinguia Nili
fertilis arva secet, plena sic semina dextra
spargere gaudet agris oneratque novalia bello.
Martius hic primum ter vomere fusus ab ipso                    610

he rushes on and Jason bears down with his whole weight                    600
from above and presses him, fixed by his own blasts,
and when he has given him to the bonds and has bound him to the strong plough,
he himself rouses with his knee and drives him besides with the savage spear,
not otherwise than if from the middle cleft of the earth
he had mounted the back of a fresh horse and first had assailed it with reins,                    605
a rumble, and on the summit Ossa of the Lapiths appeared.
      He, as though he were cutting the Libyan plains and the fat, fertile fields of the Nile,
thus rejoices to scatter full seeds with his right hand over the fields
and loads the fallow lands with war.
Here first the Martial seed, three times, was poured from the ploughshare by himself                    610

clangor et ex omni sonuerunt cornua sulco,
bellatrix tunc gleba quati pariterque creari
armarique phalanx totisque insurgere campis.
cessit et ad socios paulum se rettulit heros
opperiens ubi prima sibi daret agmina tellus. 615
at vero ut summis iam rura recedere cristis
vidit et infesta vibrantes casside terras
advolat atque, imo tellus qua proxima collo
necdum umeri videre diem, prior ense sequaci
aequat humo truncos; rutilum thoraca sequenti 620
aut primas a matre manus premit obvius ante.
nec magis aut illis aut illis milibus ultra
sufficit, ad dirae quam cum Tirynthius Hydrae
agmina Palladios defessus respicit ignes.

the clangor and horns sounded from every furrow,
then the warlike glebe quakes, and a phalanx at once to be created
and to be armed, and to rise across all the fields.
the hero yielded and withdrew himself a little to his allies,
awaiting where the earth would give him the first battle-lines. 615
but indeed when he saw the acres now bristling with highest crests
and the ground brandishing, hostile with helmet,
he swoops in, and, where the earth is nearest to the deep neck
and the shoulders have not yet seen the day, he first with a pursuing
sword levels the trunks to the ground; the ruddy thorax of the next 620
he crushes as he meets him, or he forestalls the first hands from the mother.
nor does he suffice any more for these thousands or those,
than when the Tirynthian, wearied, looks back to the Pallasian fires
against the battalions of the dread Hydra.

ergo iter<um> ad socias convertere Colchidos artes 625

therefore again he turned to the allied arts of the Colchian 625

et galeae nexus ac vincula dissipat imae
cunctaturque tamen totique occurrere bello
ipse cupit. spes nulla datur, sic undique densant
terrigenae iam signa duces clamorque tubaeque.
iamque omnes videre virum iamque omnia contra 630
tela volant.

and he dissipates the fastenings and the bonds of the lower helmet
and yet he hesitates and to encounter the whole war
he himself desires. No hope is given; thus on all sides they mass
the earth-born: now standards, leaders, and both clamor and trumpets.
and now all have seen the man, and now against him 630
the missiles fly.

tum vero amens discrimine tanto
quam modo Tartareo galeam dedit illa veneno
in medios torsit; conversae protinus hastae. 634
qualis ubi atto<nitos> maestae Phrygas annua Matris
ira vel exsectos lacerat Bellona comatos,
haud secus accensas subito Medea cohortes
implicat et miseros agit in sua proelia fratres.
omnis ibi Aesoniden sterni putat, omnibus ira
aequalis. stupet Aeetes ultroque furentes 640

then indeed, out of her mind at so great a crisis
the helmet which she had just now given with Tartarean poison she hurled into the midst; immediately the spears are turned. 634
just as when the annual wrath of the sad Mother lacerates the astonished Phrygians, or Bellona tears the long‑haired, castrated men,
not otherwise does Medea entangle the cohorts suddenly inflamed and drive the wretched brothers into their own battles.
there each thinks the Aesonid is being laid low, wrath equal for all. Aeetes is astonished and even urges on the raging men. 640

ipse viros revocare cupit, sed cuncta iacebant
agmina nec quisquam primus ruit aut super ullus
linquitur atque hausit subito sua funera tellus.
      Protinus in fluvium fumantibus evolat armis
Aesonides, qualis Getico de pulvere Mavors                    645
intrat equis uritque gravem sudoribus Hebrum
aut niger ex antris rutilique a fulminis aestu
cum fugit et Siculo respirat in aequore Cyclops.
redditus hinc tandem sociosque amplexus ovantes
haud iam mendacem promissa reposcere regem                    650
dignatur nec, si ipse sibi terga ingerat ultro
qui pepigit, velit in pacem dextramque reverti
amplius.

he himself longs to recall the men, but all the battle-lines were lying prone, nor does anyone rush forth first or is any left over alive, and the earth suddenly drank down their own funerals.
      Straightway into the river with smoking arms the Aesonid flies, like Mavors from Getic dust
enters with his horses and scorches the weighty Hebrus with sweats,                    645
or like the Cyclops, black from his caves and from the ruddy heat of lightning,
when he flees and draws breath again on the Sicilian main.
returned from here at last and embracing his exultant comrades,
he no longer deigns to demand his promises from the mendacious king,                    650
nor, even if the very one who pledged them should of his own accord thrust his back to him,
would he wish to return any further to peace and to the right hand.

ambo truces, ambo abscessere minantes.

Both truculent, both withdrew threatening.