The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Part 23

Meantime Alcyone her height of woe Unknown, counts each sad night, and now with haste The garments he should wear prepares; and now Those to adorn herself when him she meets; Cherishing emptiest hopes of his return.

Devoutest offerings to the heavenly powers She bore; but incense far before the rest On Juno's altar burn'd; and oft she pray'd For him who was not. For his safety pray'd; For his return; and that his love might still Without a rival hers remain: the last Of all her ardent prayers indulgence found.

But longer bore the G.o.ddess not to hear Such vain pet.i.tions for the dead; these hands Polluted, from her altars to remove, To Iris thus she spoke:--"O, faithful maid!

"Most trusty messenger, with speed repair "To Somnus' drowsy hall; him bid to send "A vision form'd in lifeless Cex' shape "To tell Alcyone her woes' extent."

She ended: in her various-teinted robe Attir'd, and spreading o'er the s.p.a.cious heaven Her sweeping arch, Iris the dwelling sought The G.o.ddess order'd. Hid beneath a steep Near the Cimmerians, in a deep dug cave, Form'd in a hollow mountain, stands the hall And secret dwelling of inactive sleep; Where Phbus rising, or in mid-day height, Or setting-radiance, ne'er can dart his beams.

Clouds with dim darkness mingled, from the ground Exhale, and twilight makes a doubtful day.

The watchful bird, with crested head, ne'er calls Aurora with his song; no wakeful dog, Nor goose more wakeful, e'er the silence breaks; No savage beasts, no pastur'd flocks, no boughs Shook by the breeze; no brawl of human voice There sounds: but death-like silence reigns around.

Yet from the rock's foundation, gently flows A stream of Lethe's water, whose dull waves In gentle murmuring o'er the pebbles purl, Tempting to slumber. At the cavern door The fruitful poppy, and ten thousand plants, From which moist night the drowsy juices drains, Then scatters o'er the shady earth, grew thick.

Round all the house no gate was seen, which, turn'd On the dry hinge should creak; no centry strict The threshold to protect. But in the midst The lofty bed of ebon form'd, was plac'd.

Black were the feathers; all the coverings black, And stretch'd at length the G.o.d was seen; his limbs With la.s.situde relax'd. Around him throng'd In every part, vain dreams, in various forms, In number more than what the harvest bears Of bearded grains; the woods of verdant leaves; Or sh.o.r.e of yellow sands. Here came the nymph; Th' opposing dreams push'd sideways with her hands, And through the sacred mansion from her robe Scatter'd refulgent light. With pain the G.o.d, His eyelids weigh'd with slothful torpor, rais'd; But at each effort down they sunk again: And on his breast his nodding chin still smote.

At length he rous'd him from his drowsy state; And, on his elbow resting, ask'd the nymph, For well he knew her, why she thither came.

Then she--"O Somnus! peaceful rest of all!

"Somnus! most placid of immortal powers; "Calm of the soul; whom care for ever flies; "Who soothest bosoms, with diurnal toil "Fatigu'd; and renovat'st for toil again; "Dispatch a vision to Trachinia's town, "(By great Alcides founded,) in the form "Its hapless monarch bore: let it display "The lively image of her husband's wreck, "To sad Alcyone. This Juno bids."-- Iris, her message thus deliver'd, turn'd: For more the soporific mist, which rose Around, she bore not; soon as sleep she felt Stealing upon her limbs, abrupt she fled, Mounting the bow by which she glided down.

The drowsy sire, from 'midst a thousand sons, Calls Morpheus forth, an artful G.o.d, who well All shapes can feign. None copies else so close The bidden gait, the features, and the mode Of converse; vesture too the same he wears, And language such as most they wont to speak.

Mankind alone he imitates. To seem Fierce beasts, and birds, and long-extended snakes Another claims: this Icelos the G.o.ds Have nam'd; by mortals as Photebor known.

A third is Phantasus of different skill; His change is happiest when he earth becomes, Or rocks, or waves, or trees, or substance aught That animation lacks. These shew their forms By night to mighty heroes and to kings; The rest before th' ign.o.bler crowd perform.

All these the ancient Somnus pa.s.s'd, and chose Morpheus alone from all his brethren crowd, The deed Thaumantian Iris bade, to do; Then, weigh'd with slumber, dropp'd again his head, And shrunk once more within the sable couch.

He flies through darkness on unrustling wings, And short the s.p.a.ce, ere in Trachinia's town He lights; and from his shoulders lays aside His pinions; when he Cex' form a.s.sumes.

In Cex' ghastly shape pallid he stood, Despoil'd of garments, at the widow'd bed Of the sad queen: soak'd was his beard, and streams Seem'd from his heavy dripping locks to flow.

Then leaning o'er the couch, while gushing tears O'erspread his cheeks, he thus his wife bespoke;-- "Know'st thou thy Cex, wretched, wretched wife?

"Or are my features chang'd by death? Again "View me, and here behold thy husband's shade, "Instead of husband: all thy pious prayers "For me, Alcyone, were vain. I'm lost!

"No more false hopes encourage, me to see.

"The showery southwind, on th' aegean main, "Seiz'd on our vessel, and with mighty blast "Shiver'd it wide in fragments; and the waves "Rush'd in my throat as loud thy name I call'd; "But call'd in vain. No doubtful author brings "To thee these tidings; no vague rumor this, "In person I relate it. Shipwreck'd I, "My fate to thee detail. Rise, and a.s.sist!

"Pour forth thy tears; in sable garments clothe; "Nor send my ghost to wander undeplor'd, "In shady Tartarus." Thus Morpheus spoke; And in such accents, that the queen, deceiv'd, Believ'd her husband spoke. Adown his cheeks Seem'd real tears to flow; and even his hand With Cex' motion mov'd. Deeply she groan'd, Ev'n in her sleep, and rais'd her longing arms To clasp his body; empty air she clasp'd: Exclaiming;--"stay; O whither dost thou fly?

"Together let us hence!"--Rous'd with the noise, And spectre of her spouse; sleep fled her eyes, And round she cast her gaze for that to seek Which she but now beheld. Wak'd by her voice, Her slaves approach'd with lights; but when in vain She search'd for what she lack'd, her face she struck; Rent from her b.r.e.a.s.t.s her garments; beat her b.r.e.a.s.t.s Themselves: nor stay'd her twisted hair to loose, But tore the bands away; then to her nurse Anxious the subject of her grief to learn-- "Alcyone,"--she cries--"is now no more!

"She with her Cex in one moment fell.

"Hence with your soothing words; shipwreck'd he dy'd.

"I saw; I knew him; as he fled me, stretch'd "My arms to hold the fugitive.--Ah! no!

"The shadow fled, 'twas but his ghost; but shade "My husband mere resembling ne'er was form'd.

"Yet had he not his wonted looks, nor shone "In former brightness his beloved face.

"I saw him, hapless stand with pallid cheek, "Naked, with tresses dropping still. Lo! here "Wretched he stood, just on the spot I point:"-- Then anxious try'd his footmarks there to trace.-- "This did my mind foreboding fear; I pray'd "When me thou fled'st, the winds thou would'st not trust: "But since to sure destruction forth thou went'st, "Would that by me companion'd thou had'st gone.

"With thee my bliss had been;--with thee to go.

"Unwasted then one moment of the s.p.a.ce "For life allow'd; not ev'n in death disjoin'd.

"But now I perish, and upon the waves, "Though absent, float; the main me overwhelms, "Though from the main far distant. Mental storms "To me more cruel were than ocean's waves, "Should I but longer seek to spin out life, "And combat such deep grief? I will not strive "Nor wretched thee desert; but now, though late, "Now will I join thee; and the funeral verse "Shall us unite; not in the self-same urn, "Yet in the self-same tomb; bones join'd with bones, "Allow'd not, yet shall name with name be seen."-- The rest by grief was chok'd, and sounding blows Each sentence interrupted; while deep groans Burst from her raving bosom. Morning shone, And forth she issu'd to the sh.o.r.e, and sought In grief the spot, where last his face she view'd Departing. "Here,"--she said,--"as slow he went, "As slow he loos'd his cables; on this beach "The parting kiss he gave." While her mind's eye Retraces every circ.u.mstance, she looks, And something sees far floating on the waves, Not much unlike a man: dubious at first What it may be, she views it: nearer now The billows drive it; and though distant still, Plain to the eye a body was descry'd.

Whose body, witless, still a shipwreck'd wretch With boding omen mov'd her; and in tears She wail'd him as a stranger in these plaints.-- "Unhappy wretch! whoe'er thou art; and she "Thy wife, if wife thou had'st"--but now the surge More near the body bore. The more she views Nearer the corps; the more her senses fly.

And now close driven to sh.o.r.e it floats, and now Well she discern'd it was, it was--her spouse!

"'Tis he!"--she loudly shriek'd, and tore her face, Her hair, her garments. Then her trembling arms To Cex stretching; "Dearest husband!"--cry'd.

"Art thou restor'd thus to my wretched breast?"

High-rais'd by art, adjoining to the beach A mole was form'd, which broke the primal strength Of ocean's fury, and the fierce waves tir'd.

Hither she sprung, and, wond'rous that she could!

She flew; the light air winnowing with her wings New-sprung; a mournful bird she skimm'd along The water's surface. As she flies, her beak Slender and small, a creaking noise sends forth, Of mournful sound, and full of sad complaint.

Soon as the silent bloodless corse she reach'd, Around his dear-lov'd limbs her wings she clasp'd, And gave cold kisses with her h.o.r.n.y bill.

If Cex felt them, or his head was rais'd To meet her by the waves, th' unlearned doubt.

But sure he felt them. Both at length, the G.o.ds Commisserating, chang'd to feather'd birds.

The same their love remains, and subject still To the same fates; and in the plumag'd pair The nuptial bond is sacred; join'd in one Parents they soon become; and Halcyon sits Sev'n peaceful days 'mid winter's keenest rule Upon her floating nest. Safe then the main: For aeolus with watchful care the winds Guards, and prevents their egress; and the seas Smooths for the offspring, with a grandsire's care.

These, as they skimm'd the surface of the main, An ancient sire beheld, and prais'd their love: Constant in death: his neighbour or himself Also repeats;--the bird which there you see, Brushing the ocean with his slender legs, (And shews a corm'rant with his s.p.a.cious maw) A monarch's offspring was; would you descend Through the long series, 'till to him you reach; Ilus; a.s.saracus; and Ganymede, Borne up to heaven by Jove, supply'd the stock From whence he sprung; Laomedon the old; And Priam doom'd to end his days with Troy.

Hector his brother; but in spring of youth He felt this strange adventure, he perchance As Hector's might have left a towering name: Though from old Dymas' daughter Hector sprung.

Fair Alixirrhoe, so fame reports, Daughter of two-horn'd Granicus, brought forth, By stealth, aesacus 'neath thick Ida's shade.

Wall'd cities he detested; and remote From glittering palaces, secluded hills Inhabited, and unambitious plains; And scarce at Troy's a.s.semblies e'er was seen.

Yet had he not a clownish heart, nor breast To love impregnable. By chance he saw Cebrenus' daughter, fair Hesperie--oft By him through every shady wood pursu'd-- As on her father's banks her tresses, spread Adown her back, in Phbus' rays she dry'd.

The nymph, discover'd, fled. So rapid flies Th' affrighted stag to 'scape the tawny Wolf; Or duck, stream-loving, from the hawk, when caught, Far from her wonted lakes. The Trojan youth Quick follows, swift through hope; she swift through fear.

Lo! in the herbage hid, her flying foot With crooked fang a serpent bit, and pour'd O'er all her limbs the poison: with her flight Her life was stopp'd. Frantic, he clasps her form Now lifeless, and exclaims--"how grieve I now, "That e'er I thee pursu'd; not this I fear'd!

"How mean my conquest, bought at such a price!

"Both, hapless nymph! in thy destruction join'd: "I gave the cause, the serpent but the wound.

"I guiltier far than he, unless my death "Shall thine avenge."--He said, and in the main, From an high rock, by hoa.r.s.ely-roaring waves Deep-worn beneath, prepar'd to plunge. Receiv'd By pitying Tethys softly in his fall, She clothes him, as he swims the main, with wings; And death, so much desir'd, denies him still.

The lover, furious at th' unwelcome gift Of life upon him forc'd, and his pent soul, Bent on escaping from its hated seat Confin'd, soon as the new-shot plumes he felt Spring from his shoulders, up he flew, and plunged Again his body in the depths below: His feathers broke his fall. aesacus rav'd, And deeply div'd; with headlong fury still, And endless perseverance death he sought.

Love keeps him meagre still; from joint to joint His legs still longer grow; his outstretch'd neck Is long; and distant far his head is plac'd.

He loves the ocean, and the name he bears, From constant diving, seems correctly giv'n.

*The Twelfth Book.*

Rape of Helen. Expedition of the Greeks against Troy. House of Fame. The Trojan war. Combat of Achilles and Cygnus. The latter slain and transformed to a swan. Story of Caeneus. Fight of the Lapithae and Centaurs. Change of Caeneus to a bird. Contest of Hercules with Periclymenos. Death of Achilles. Dispute for his arms.

THE *Twelfth Book* OF THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID.

Priam the sire, much mourn'd, to him unknown That still his son, on pinions borne, surviv'd: While Hector and his brethren round the tomb, A name alone possessing, empty rites Perform'd. Save Paris, from the solemn scene None absent were; he with the ravish'd wife Brought to his sh.o.r.es a long protracted war.

Quick was he follow'd by confederate ships Ten hundred, and the whole Pelasgian race.

Nor had their vengeance borne so long delay, But adverse raging tempests made the main Impa.s.sable; and on Botia's sh.o.r.es, In Aulis' port th' impatient vessels bound.

Here, while the Greeks the rites of Jove prepare, Their country's custom, as the altar blaz'd, They saw an azure serpent writhe around A plane, which near the altar rear'd its boughs.

Its lofty summit held a nest; within Eight callow birds were lodg'd; on these he seiz'd, And seiz'd the mother, who, with trembling wings, Hover'd around her loss, all burying deep Within his greedy maw. All stare with dread.

But Thestor's son, prophetic truths who still Beheld, exclaim'd--"Rejoice! O Greeks, rejoice!

"Conquest is ours, and lofty Troy must fall.

"But great our toil, and tedious our delay."

Then shew'd the birds a nine years' war foretold.

The snake, entwining 'mid the virid boughs, Hard stone becomes, but keeps his serpent's form.

But still th' Aonian waves in violent swell Were lash'd by Neptune, nor their vessels bore; And many deem'd that Troy he wish'd to spare, Whose walls his labor rais'd. Not so the son Of Thestor thought: neither he knew hot so, Nor what he knew conceal'd:--a victim dire The virgin-G.o.ddess claim'd; a virgin's blood!

When o'er affection public weal prevail'd, The king o'ercame the father; and before The altar Iphigenia stood, prepar'd Her spotless blood to shed, as tears gush'd forth Even from the sacrificial 'tendants. Then "Was Dian' mov'd, and threw before their sight A cloud opaque, and (so tradition tells) The maid Thycenian to an hind was chang'd, Amid the priests, the pious crowd and all Who deprecating heard her doom. This done, Dian' by such a sacrifice appeas'd As Dian' best became; and sooth'd her ire, The angry aspect of the seas was smooth'd; And all the thousand vessels felt the breeze Abaft, and bore the long impatient crowd To Phrygia's sh.o.r.es. A spot there lies, whose seat Midst of created s.p.a.ce, 'twixt earth, and sea, And heavenly regions, on the confines rests Of the three-sever'd world; whence are beheld All objects and all actions though remote, And every sound by tending ears is heard.

Here Fame resides; and in the loftiest towers Her dwelling chuses; and some thousand ways, And thousand portals to the dwelling makes: No portal clos'd with gates. By day, by night, Open they stand; of sounding bra.s.s all form'd; All echoing sound; all back the voice rebound: And all reit'rate every word they hear.

No rest within, no silence there is found, Yet clamor is not, but a murmur low; Such as the billows wont to make when heard From far, or such as distant thunder sends, When Jove the dark clouds rends and drives aloof.

Crowds fill the halls: the trifling vulgar come And issue forth. Ten thousand rumors vague With truth commingled to and fro are heard.

Words in confusion fly. Amid the throng These preach their words to vacant air, and those To others tales narrate; the measure still Of every fiction in narration grows; And every author adds to what he hears.

Here lives credulity; and here abides Rash error; transports vain; astonied fear; Sedition sudden; and, uncertain whence, Dark whisperings. Fame herself sits high aloft, And views what deeds in heaven, and earth, and sea Are done, and searches all creation round.

The news she spreads, that now the Grecian barks Approach with valiant force; nor did the foe Unlook'd-for threat the realm. All Troy impedes Their landing, and the sh.o.r.es defends. Thou first, Protesilaus! by great Hector's spear Unluckily wast slain. The war begun, Their valiant souls, ere yet they Hector knew, Dear cost the Greeks. Nor small the blood which flow'd From Phrygia's sons, by Grecia's valor spill'd.

Now blush'd Sigaeum's sh.o.r.es with spouting blood, Where Cygnus, Neptune's offspring, gave to death Whole crowds. Achilles in his chariot stood, And with his forceful Pelian spear o'erthrew Thick ranks of Trojans; and as through the fights Cygnus or Hector to engage he sought, Cygnus he met: delay'd was Hector's fate To the tenth year. Then to his white-neck'd steeds, Press'd by the yoke, with cheering shouts he spoke; And full against the foe his chariot drove.

His quivering lance well-pois'd he shook, and call'd, "Whoe'er thou art, O youth! this comfort learn "In death, that by Achilles' arm thou dy'st."