The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Part 4

s.n.a.t.c.h'd from the curling flames, and from the womb Of his dead mother, he the infant bore To double-body'd Chiron's secret cave.

But bade the self-applauding crow, fill'd big With hopes of favor for his faithful tale, With snowy-plumag'd birds no more to join.

Meantime while Chiron, human half, half beast, Proud of his deity-descended charge, Joy'd in the honor with the task bestow'd:-- Behold, her shoulders with her golden locks Shaded, the daughter of the Centaur comes; Whom fair Chariclo, on a river's brink Swift-rolling, bore, and thence Ocyrrhoe nam'd.

She not content her father's arts to know, The hidden secrets of the fates disclos'd.

Now was her soul with fate-foretelling sounds Fill'd, and within her fiercely rag'd the G.o.d: The infant viewing;--"Grow," she said, "apace, "Health-bearer through the world. To thee shall oft "Expiring mortals owe returning life!

"To thee 'tis given to render souls again "Back to their bodies! Once thou'lt dare the deed;-- "The angry G.o.d's forbidding flames, thy power "Further preventing:--and a bloodless corps "Heaven-born, thou ly'st;---but what thy body form'd "A G.o.d becomes,--resuscitated twice.

"Thou too, my dearest and immortal sire!

"To ages never-ending, born to live, "Shalt wish for death in vain; when writhing sad "From the dire serpent's venom in thy limbs, "By wounds instill'd. The pitying G.o.ds will change "Thy destin'd fate, and let immortal die: "The triple sisters shall thy thread divide.

"More yet untold remains;"--Deep from her chest The sighs burst forth, and starting tears stream down, Laving her cheeks, while thus the maid pursues: "The fates prevent me, and forbid to tell "What more I would;--all power to speak deny.

"Those arts, alas! heaven's anger which have drawn,-- "What were they? Would I ne'er the future knew!

"Now seems my human shape to leave me. Now "The verdant gra.s.s a pleasing food appears.

"Now am I urg'd along the plain to bound; "Chang'd to a mare: unto my sire ally'd "In form,--but why sole chang'd? my father bears "A two-form'd body;"--Wailing thus, her words Confus'd and indistinct at length are heard.

Next sounds are utter'd partly human, more A mare's resembling:--then she neighs aloud; Treading with alter'd arms the ground: fast join'd Her fingers now become: a slender hoof Her toes connecting with continuous horn.

Her head enlarges; and her neck expands; Her spreading garment floats a beauteous tail: Her scatter'd tresses o'er her shoulders flung, Form a thick mane to clothe her s.p.a.cious neck: Her voice is alter'd with her alter'd shape: And change of name the wonderous deed attends.

Deep Chiron mourn'd, O Phbus, and thy aid In vain invok'd; for bootless was thy power Jove's mandate to resist; nor if thou could'st Then wast thou nigh to help. In Elis far, And fields Messenian then was thy abode.

Then was the time when shepherd-like a robe Of skins enwrapp'd thee;--when thy left hand bore A sylvan staff;--thy right a pipe retain'd, Of seven unequal reeds. While love engag'd Thy thoughts, and dulcet music sooth'd thy cares, 'Tis said, thy herds without their herdsman stray'd, Far to the Pylian meadows. These the son Of Atlantean Maia espy'd; And, slily driven away, within the woods The cattle artful hid. None saw the deed, Save one old h.o.a.ry swain, well known around, And Battus nam'd; whose post it was to guard The groves, the gra.s.sy meads, and high-bred mares Of wealthy Neleus. Him the robber fear'd; Drew him aside, and coaxing thus address'd;-- "Whoe'er thou art, good friend, if here perchance, "Someone should seek an herd,--say that thou here "No herd hast seen;--thou shall not lack reward: "Take this bright heifer:"--and the cow he gave.

The bribe receiv'd, the shepherd thus replies; "Friend, thou art safe,--that stone shall sooner speak "And tell thy deed than I:"--and shew'd the stone.

The son of Jove departs, or seems to go; But soon with alter'd form and voice returns.

"Here, countryman," he cries, "hast thou an herd "This way observ'd to pa.s.s?--no secret keep, "To aid the theft; an heifer with a bull "Await thy information." Doubly brib'd, The h.o.a.ry rogue betray'd his former trust.

"Beneath those hills," he said, "the herd you'll find."

Beneath the hills they were. Loud laugh'd the G.o.d And cry'd,--"Thou treacherous villain, to myself "Wouldst thou betray me? wouldst thou to myself "My deeds betray?" And to a flinty stone His perjur'd breast he chang'd, which still retains The name of Touchstone;--on the harmless rock His infamous demerits firmly fix'd.

Hermes from hence, on waving wings upborne Darted, and in his flight beneath him saw The Attic pastures,--the much-favor'd land Of Pallas; and Lyceum's cultur'd groves.

It chanc'd that day, as wont, the virgins chaste, Bore on their heads in canisters festoon'd, Their offerings pure to Pallas' sacred fane.

Returning thence the winged G.o.d espy'd The troop, and straight his onward flight restrain'd; Wheeling in circles round. As sails the kite, Swiftest of birds, when entrails seen from far By holy augurs thick beset,--he fears A near approach, but circling steers his flight On beating wings, around his hopes and round.

So 'bove the Athenian towers the light-plum'd G.o.d Swept round in circles on the self-same air.

As Phosphor far outshines the starry host; As silver Cynthia Phosphor bright outshines; So much did Herse all the nymphs excel, The bright procession's ornament; the pride Of all th' accompanying nymphs. Her beauteous mien Stagger'd Jove's son, who hovering in the air Fierce burns with love. The Balearic sling, Thus shoots a ball; quick through the air it flies, Warms in its flight, and feels beneath the clouds Flames hereto known not. Alter'd now his route The skies he leaves, and holds a different flight: Nor veils his figure,--such reliance gave His beauteous form: and beauteous though that form, Yet careful did the G.o.d his looks adorn; He smoothes his tresses, and his robe adjusts To hang in graceful folds, and fair display The golden fringe; his round and slender wand, Of sleep-procuring, sleep-repelling power, His right hand bears; and on his comely feet His plumed sandals shine. Within the house Three separate chambers were secluded form'd, With tortoise and with ivory rich adorn'd.

Thou, Pandrosos, within the right repos'd; And on the left hand thou Aglauros, slept; Fair Herse in the midst. Aglauros first The G.o.d's approach descry'd, and daring ask'd Who he?--and what he sought?--To whom the G.o.d; "Him you behold, who through the air conveys "His sire's commands: Almighty Jove that sire.

"Nor will I feign my errand. So may'st thou "True to thy sister prove, and soon be call'd "My offspring's aunt. 'Tis Herse draws me here.

"Help then a lover in his warm pursuit."

Aglauros bends on Mercury those eyes, Which yellow-hair'd Minerva's secret saw; And ponderous sums for her a.s.sistance claims; Driving the G.o.d meantime without the gates.

With angry glare the warlike G.o.ddess view'd The mercenary nymph, and angry sighs, Which shook her bosom heav'd; the aegis shook, On that strong bosom fix'd. Now calls to mind Minerva how with hands prophane, the maid Her strict behests despising, daring pry'd To know her secrets; and the seed beheld Of Vulcan, child without a mother form'd: Now to her sister and the G.o.d unkind; Rich with the gold her avarice had claim'd.

To Envy's gloomy cell, where clots of gore The floor defil'd, enrag'd Minerva flew: A darkened vale, deep sunk, the cavern held, where vivid sun ne'er shone, nor freshening breeze Health wafted: torpid melancholy rul'd, And sluggish cold; and cheering light unknown, Damp darkness ever gloom'd. The G.o.ddess here In conflict dreaded came, but at the doors Her footsteps staid, for entrance Fate forbade.

The gates she strikes--struck by her spear, the gates Wide open fly, and dark within disclose, On vipers gorging, (her accustom'd feast,) The envious fiend: back from the hideous sight Recoils the G.o.ddess, and averts her eyes.

Slow rising from the ground, her half chew'd food She quits, advancing indolently forth: The maid, in warlike brightness clad, she saw, In form divine, and heavy sighs burst forth Deep from her bosom's black recess: pale gloom.

Dwells on her forehead; lean her fleshless form; Askaunce her eyes; encrusted black her teeth; Green'd deep with gall her b.r.e.a.s.t.s; her hideous tongue With poisons lurid; laughter knows her not, Save woes and pangs unmerited she sees; Sleep flies her couch, by cares unceasing wrung; At men's success she sickens, pining sad; But stung herself, while others feel her sting Her torture closely grasps her.--Much the maid The sight abhors; and thus in brief she speaks:-- "Deep in the breast of Cecrops' daughter fix "Thy venom'd sting--Aglauros is the nymph.-- "More needs not."--Speaking so Minerva fled, Upbounding, earth she with her spear repell'd.

Glancing asquint the fury saw her rise, And inly groan'd,--that she success should gain.

Her staff with p.r.i.c.kly thorns enwreath'd she takes, And forth she sallies, wrapp'd in gloomy clouds.

Where'er she flies she blasts the flowery fields; Consumes the herbage; and the harvest blights.

Her breath pestiferous felt the cities round, Houses and 'habitants where'er she flew.

At length the towers of Athens she beheld With arts and riches flourishing, and blest With holy peace. Scarce could she tears withhold, No tearful eye throughout the place to see.

Straight to the room of Cecrops' daughter now Her route she urges, and her task performs: Her rusty hand upon the maiden's breast She plants, and with sharp thorns that bosom fills; Breathes noxious poison through her frame; imbues With venom black her heart, and all her limbs.

Lest from her eyes escap'd, the maddening scene Should cease to vex her, full in view she plac'd Her sister, and her sister's nuptial rites; And Hermes beauteous in the bridal pomp: In beauty all, and splendor all increas'd.

Mad with the imag'd sight, the maid is gnawn With secret pangs;--deep groans the lengthen'd night, And deep the morning hears; she wastes away Silently wretched, lingeringly slow.

As Sol's faint rays the summer ice dissolves: So burns she to behold the envy'd lot Of Herse; not with furious flames,--as weeds Blaze not when damp, but with slow heat consume.

Oft would she wish to die: and oft the deed To hinder, thinks to tell her rigid sire Her sister's fault. At length her seat she takes Across the threshold, and th' approaching G.o.d Repuls'd; and to his blandishments, and words Beseeching fair, and soft-alluring prayers, She cry'd,--"Desist,--from hence I ne'er will move "Till thou art driven away." Swift Hermes said.-- "Keep firmly that resolve." And with his wand The sculptur'd portals touching, wide they flew.

But when her limbs to raise, the virgin strove, A weighty numbness o'er the members crept Which bend in sitting, and their movement staid.

Strenuous she strives to raise her form erect, But stiffen'd feels her knees; chill coldness spreads Through all her toes; and, fled the purple stream, Her veins turn pallid: cruel cancer thus, Disease incurable, spreads far and wide, Sound members adding to the parts diseas'd.

So gradual, o'er her breast the chilling frost Crept deadly, and the gates of life shut close.

Complaint she try'd not; had she try'd, her voice Had found no pa.s.sage, for the stone had seiz'd Her throat,--her mouth; to marble all was chang'd.

She sat a pallid statue;--all the stone Her envy tainted with a livid hue.

His vengeance, when Jove's son complete had seen, Due to her avarice, and her envious soul; He left Minerva's land, and up the sky On wafting pinions mounted. There his sire, Him from th' a.s.sembly drew; nor yet disclos'd, The object of his love:--"Son, quickly haste,-- "Thou faithful messenger of my commands, "Urge rapid thy descending flight, and seek "The realm whose northern bounds thy mother star "O'erlooks,--the land by natives Sidon call'd.

"There wilt thou pasturing find the royal herd, "'Neath hills not distant from the sea: turn down "This herd to meadows bordering on the beach."

He said;--the cattle tow'rd the sea sh.o.r.e move, Where sported with her Tyrian maids as wont, The monarch's daughter. Ill majestic state And love agree; nor long combin'd remain.

The sire and ruler of the G.o.ds resigns His weighty sceptre: he whose right hand bears The three-fork'd fires; whose nod creation shakes, a.s.sumes a bull's appearance:--with the herd Mingles; and strolling lets the tender shrubs Brush his fair sides. Of snowy white his skin; Such snow as rugged feet has never soil'd, Nor southern showers dissolv'd: his brawny neck, Strong from his shoulders stands: beneath extends The dewlap pendulous: small are his horns; But smooth as polish'd by the workman's hand;-- Pellucid as the brightest gems they shine: No threatenings wear his brow; no fire his eyes Flame fierce; but all his countenance peace proclaims.

Him much Agenor's royal maid admir'd;-- His form so beauteous, and his look so mild.

Yet peaceful as he seem'd, she fear'd at first A close approach;--but nearer soon she drew, And to his shining mouth the flowery food Presented. Joy'd th' impatient lover stands, Her fingers kissing; and with sore restraint Defers his look'd for pleasures. Sportive now He wantons, frisking in the gra.s.s; now rolls His snowy sides upon the yellow sand.

Her apprehensions chas'd, by slow degrees, The virgin's fingers playful stroke his breast; Then bind with wreaths his horns: more daring now Upon his back the royal maid ascends;-- Witless a G.o.d she presses. From the fields, His steps deceitful gradual turn'd, he bends, And seeks the sh.o.r.e; then playful in the waves Just dips his feet;--thence plunging deep, he swims Through midmost ocean with his ravish'd prize.

Trembling the nymph beholds the lessening sh.o.r.e;---- Firm grasps one hand his horn; upon his back, Secure the other resting: to the wind, Her fluttering garments floating as she sails.

*The Third Book.*

Unsuccessful search of Cadmus for his sister. Death of his companions by the dragon. Overthrow of the dragon, and production of armed men from his teeth. Thebes. Actaeon devoured by his hounds. Semele destroyed by lightening, and the birth of Bacchus.

The prophet Tiresias. Echo: and the transformation of Narcissus.

Impiety of Pentheus. Change of the Tyrrhenian sailors to dolphins. Ma.s.sacre of Pentheus.

THE *Third Book* OF THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID.

And now the G.o.d, his b.e.s.t.i.a.l form resign'd, Shone in his form celestial as he gain'd The Cretan sh.o.r.e. Meantime, the theft unknown, Mourn'd her sad sire, and Cadmus sent to seek The ravish'd maid; stern threatening as he went, Perpetual exile if his searching fail'd:-- Parental love and cruelty combin'd!

All earth explor'd in vain, (for who shall find The amorous thefts of Jove?) the exile shuns His father's anger, and paternal soil.

A suppliant bends before Apollo's shrine, To ask his aid;--what region he should chuse To fix his habitation. Phbus thus;-- "A cow, whose neck the yoke has never prest, "Strange to the crooked plough, shall meet thy steps, "Lone in the desert fields: the way she leads "Chuse thou,--rand where upon the gra.s.s she rests, "Erect thy walls;--Botia call the place."

Scarce had the cave Castalian Cadmus left, When he an heifer, gently pacing, spy'd Untended; one whose neck no mark betray'd Of galling service. Closely treads the youth, Slow moving in her footsteps, and adores In silence Phbus, leader of his way.

Now had he pa.s.s'd the Cephisidian stream, And meads of Panope, when stay'd the beast; Her broad front lifted to the sky; reverse Her lofty horns reclining, shook the air With lowings loud; back then her face she bent, And saw the comrades following close behind: Down low she couch'd, and press'd the yielding gra.s.s, Glad thanks to Phbus, Cadmus gave, and kiss'd The foreign soil;--the unknown hills, and land Saluted. Then a sacrifice to Jove Preparing, sent his followers to explore Streams flowing from the living fountain clear.

An ancient forest hallow'd from the axe, Not far there stood; in whose dark bosom gloom'd A cavern:--twigs and branches thick inwove With rocky crags, a low arch'd entrance form'd; Where pure and copious, gush'd transparent waves.

Deep hid within a monstrous serpent lay, Sacred to Mars. Bright shone his crested head; His eyeb.a.l.l.s glow'd with fire; his body swell'd Bloated with poison; o'er a threefold row Of murderous teeth, three quivering tongues he shook.

This grove the Tyrians with ill-fated feet Now enter'd; and now in the waters threw, With noisy dash, their urns. Uprears his head, The azure serpent from the cavern deep; And breathes forth hisses dire: their urns they drop; The blood forsakes their bodies; sudden fear Chills their astonish'd limbs. He writhing quick, Forms scaly circles; spiral twisting round, Bends in an arch immense to leap, and rears In the thin air erect, 'bove half his height; All the wide grove o'erlooking. Such his size, Could all be seen, than that vast snake no less, Whose huge bulk lies the Arctic bears between.

The Tyrians quick he seizes; some their arms Vain grasping,--flying some,--and some through fear To fight or fly unable:--these his jaws Crash murderous; those his writhing tail surrounds; Others his breath, with poison loaded, kills.

Now loftiest Phbus shorten'd shadows gave, When Cadmus, wondering much why still his friends Tarried so long, their parting footsteps trac'd.

His robe an hide torn from a lion's back; A dart and spear of shining steel his arms; With courage, arms surpa.s.sing. Now the grove He enters, and their breathless limbs beholds;-- Their victor foe's huge bulk upon them stretch'd; Licking with gory tongue their mournful wounds.

"My faithful friends," he cry'd, "I will avenge "Your fate,--or perish with you." Straight a rock His right hand rais'd, and with impetuous force, Hurl'd it right on. A city's lofty walls With all its towers, to feel the blow had shook!

Yet lay the beast unwounded; safely sheath'd With scaly armour, and his harden'd hide:-- His skin alone the furious blow repell'd.

Not so that hardness mocks the javelin,--fixt Firm in the bending of the pliant spine His weapon stood,--and all the iron head Deep in his entrails sunk. Mad with the pain, Reverse he writhes his head;--beholds the wound; Champs the fixt dart;--by many forceful tugs Loosen'd at length, he tears the shaft away; But deep the steel within his bones remains.

Now to his wonted fury fiercer flames This torture adding, big with poison swells His throat; and flowing, round his venom'd jaws, White foam appears; deep harrow'd with his scales Loud sounds the earth; and vapours black, breath'd out His mouth infernal, taint with death the air.

Now roll'd in spires, he forms an orb immense: Now stretch'd at length he seems a monstrous beam: Now rushing forward with impetuous force, As sweeps a torrent swell'd by rain, his breast Bears down th' opposing forest. Cadmus back A step recedes, and on his lion's hide The shock sustains;--then with protended spear Checks his approaching jaws. Furious he strives To wound the harden'd steel;--on the sharp point He grinds his teeth: now from his poisonous mouth, Began the blood to flow, and sprinkling ting'd The virid gra.s.s; but trivial still the hurt; For shrinking from the blow, and twisting back His wounded neck, the stroke he still prevents Deeper to pierce, by yielding to its force.

But pushing arduous on, Agenor's son, Fix'd in his throat the steel;--and the sharp point Forc'd through his neck: an oak oppos'd behind;-- The tree and neck the spear at once transfix'd.

Dragg'd by the monster's weight low bends the tree, And groans and cracks, as lashing blows, his tail Immense, deals round. Now whilst the victor stands And wondering views the conquer'd serpent's size, Sudden a voice is heard, (from whence unknown,-- But plain the words he hears) "Why view'st thou thus, "Agenor's son, the foe by thee destroy'd?

"Thou one day like this serpent shalt be seen."