“First Ceres broke with crooked plow the glebe;first gave to earth its fruit and wholesome food;first gave the laws;—all things of Ceres came;of her I sing; and oh, that I could tellher worth in verse; in verse her worth is due.“Because he dared to covet heavenly thronesTyphoeus, giant limbs are weighted downbeneath Sicilia's Isle—vast in extent—how often thence he strains and strives to rise?But his right hand Pachynus holds; his legs are pressedby Lilybaeus, Aetna weights his head.Beneath that ponderous mass Typhoeus lies,flat on his back; and spues the sands on high;and vomits flames from his ferocious mouth.He often strives to push the earth away,the cities and the mountains from his limbs—by which the lands are shaken. Even the king,that rules the silent shades is made to quake,for fear the earth may open and the ground,cleft in wide chasms, letting in the day,may terrify the trembling ghosts. Afraidof this disaster, that dark despot lefthis gloomy habitation; carried forthby soot-black horses, in his gloomy car.“He circumspectly viewed Sicilia's vastfoundations.—Having well explored and provedno part was shattered; having laid asidehis careful fears, he wandered in those parts.“Him, Venus, Erycina, in her mountthus witnessed, and embraced her winged son,and said, ‘O Cupid! thou who art my son—my arms, my hand, my strength; take up those arms,by which thou art victorious over all,and aim thy keenest arrow at the heartof that divinity whom fortune gavethe last award, what time the triple realm,by lot was portioned out.‘The Gods of Heavenare overcome by thee; and Jupiter,and all the Deities that swim the deep,and the great ruler of the Water-Gods:why, then, should Tartarus escape our sway—the third part of the universe at stake—by which thy mother's empire and thy ownmay be enlarged according to great need.‘How shameful is our present lot in Heaven,the powers of love and I alike despised;for, mark how Pallas has renounced my sway,besides Diana, javelin-hurler—sowill Ceres' daughter choose virginity,if we permit,—that way her hopes incline.Do thou this goddess Proserpine, unitein marriage to her uncle. Venus spoke;—“Cupid then loosed his quiver, and of allits many arrows, by his mother's aid,selected one; the keenest of them all;the least uncertain, surest from the string:and having fixed his knee against the bow,bent back the flexile horn.—The flying shaftstruck Pluto in the breast.“There is a lakeof greatest depth, not far from Henna's walls,long since called Pergus; and the songs of swans,that wake Cayster, rival not the notesof swans melodious on its gliding waves:a fringe of trees, encircling as a wreathits compassed waters, with a leafy veildenies the heat of noon; cool breezes blowbeneath the boughs; the humid ground is sprentwith purpling flowers, and spring eternal reigns.“While Proserpine once dallied in that grove,plucking white lilies and sweet violets,and while she heaped her basket, while she filledher bosom, in a pretty zeal to strivebeyond all others; she was seen, beloved,and carried off by Pluto—such the hasteof sudden love.“The goddess, in great fear,called on her mother and on all her friends;and, in her frenzy, as her robe was rent,down from the upper edge, her gathered flowersfell from her loosened tunic.—This mishap,so perfect was her childish innocence,increased her virgin grief.—“The ravisherurged on his chariot, and inspired his steeds;called each by name, and on their necks and manesshook the black-rusted reins. They hastened throughdeep lakes, and through the pools of Palici,which boiling upward from the ruptured earthsmell of strong sulphur. And they bore him thenceto where the sons of Bacchus, who had sailedfrom twin-sea Corinth, long ago had builta city's walls between unequal ports.
“Prima Ceres unco glaebam dimovit aratro,prima dedit fruges alimentaque mitia terris,prima dedit leges: Cereris sunt omnia munus.Illa canenda mihi est. Utinam modo dicere possemcarmina digna dea: certe dea carmine digna est.Vasta giganteis ingesta est insula membrisTrinacris et magnis subiectum molibus urgetaetherias ausum sperare Typhoea sedes.Nititur ille quidem pugnatque resurgere saepe,dextra sed Ausonio manus est subiecta Peloro,laeva, Pachyne, tibi, Lilybaeo crura premuntur,degravat Aetna caput: sub qua resupinus harenaseiectat flammamque ferox vomit ore Typhoeus.Saepe remoliri luctatur pondera terraeoppidaque et magnos devolvere corpore montes.Inde tremit tellus, et rex pavet ipse silentum,ne pateat latoque solum retegatur hiatuinmissusque dies trepidantes terreat umbras.Hanc metuens cladem tenebrosa sede tyrannusexierat, curruque atrorum vectus equorumambibat Siculae cautus fundamina terrae.Postquam exploratum satis est loca nulla labare,depositoque metu, videt hunc Erycina vagantemmonte suo residens, natumque amplexa volucrem“arma manusque meae, mea, nate, potentia”, dixit,“illa, quibus superas omnes, cape tela, Cupido,inque dei pectus celeres molire sagittas,cui triplicis cessit fortuna novissima regni.Tu superos ipsumque Iovem tu numina pontivicta domas ipsumque, regit qui numina ponti.Tartara quid cessant? cur non matrisque tuumqueimperium profers? agitur pars tertia mundi.Et tamen in caelo, quae iam patientia nostra est,spernimur, ac mecum vires minuuntur Amoris.Pallada nonne vides iaculatricemque Dianamabscessisse mihi? Cereris quoque filia virgo,si patiemur, erit: nam spes adfectat easdem.At tu, pro socio, siqua est ea gratia, regnoiunge deam patruo.” Dixit Venus. Ille pharetramsolvit et arbitrio matris de mille sagittisunam seposuit, sed qua nec acutior ullanec minus incerta est nec quae magis audiat arcus,oppositoque genu curvavit flexile cornuminque cor hamata percussit harundine Ditem.Haud procul Hennaeis lacus est a moenibus altae,nomine Pergus, aquae. Non illo plura Caystroscarmina cycnorum labentibus audit in undis.Silva coronat aquas cingens latus omne, suisquefrondibus ut velo Phoebeos submovet ictus.Frigora dant rami, tyrios humus umida flores:perpetuum ver est. Quo dum Proserpina lucoludit et aut violas aut candida lilia carpit,dumque puellari studio calathosque sinumqueimplet et aequales certat superare legendo,paene simul visa est dilectaque raptaque Diti:usque adeo est properatus amor. Dea territa maestoet matrem et comites, sed matrem saepius, oreclamat; et, ut summa vestem laniarat ab ora,conlecti flores tunicis cecidere remissis.Tantaque simplicitas puerilibus adfuit annis,haec quoque virgineum movit iactura dolorem.Raptor agit currus et nomine quemque vocandoexhortatur equos, quorum per colla iubasqueexcutit obscura tinctas ferrugine habenas,perque lacus altos et olentia sulphure ferturstagna Palicorum, rupta fervenu terra,et qua Bacchiadae, bimari gens orta Corintho,inter inaequales posuerunt moenia portus.
“Midway between the streams of Cyaneand Arethusa lies a moon-like pool,of silvered narrow horns. There stood the Nymph,revered above all others in that land,whose name was Cyane. From her that pondwas always called. And as she stood, concealedin middle waves that circled her white thighs,she recognized the God, and said; ‘O thoushalt go no further, Pluto, thou shalt notby force alone become the son-in-lawof Ceres. It is better to beseecha mother's aid than drag her child away!And this sustains my word, if I may thuscompare great things with small, Anapis lovedme also; but he wooed and married meby kind endearments; not by fear, as thouhast terrified this girl.’ So did she speak;and stretching out her arms on either sideopposed his way.“The son of Saturn blazedwith uncontrolled rage; and urged his steeds,and hurled his royal scepter in the pool.Cast with a mighty arm it pierced the deeps.The smitten earth made way to Tartarus;—it opened a wide basin and receivedthe plunging chariot in the midst.—But nowthe mournful Cyane began to grieve,because from her against her fountain-rightsthe goddess had been torn. The deepening woundstill rankled in her breast, and she dissolvedin many tears, and wasted in those waveswhich lately were submissive to her rule.“So you could see her members waste away:her hones begin to bend; her nails get soft;her azure hair, her fingers, legs and feet,and every slender part melt in the pool:so brief the time in which her tender limbswere changed to flowing waves; and after themher back and shoulders, and her sides and breastsdissolved and vanished into rivulets:and while she changed, the water slowly filledher faulty veins instead of living blood—and nothing that a hand could hold remained.“Now it befell when Proserpine was lost,her anxious mother sought through every landand every sea in vain. She rested not.Aurora, when she came with ruddy locks,might never know, nor even Hesperus,if she might deign to rest.—She lit two pinesfrom Aetna's flames and held one in each hand,and restless bore them through the frosty glooms:and when serene the day had dimmed the starsshe sought her daughter by the rising sun;and when the sun declined she rested not.“Wearied with labour she began to thirst,for all this while no streams had cooled her lips;when, as by chance, a cottage thatched with strawgladdened her sight. Thither the goddess went,and, after knocking at the humble door,waited until an ancient woman came;who, when she saw the goddess and had heardher plea for water, gave her a sweet drink,but lately brewed of parched barley-meal;and while the goddess quaffed this drink a boy,of bold and hard appearance, stood beforeand laughed and called her greedy. While he spokethe angry goddess sprinkled him with meal,mixed with the liquid which had not been drunk.“His face grew spotted where the mixture struck,and legs appeared where he had arms before,a tail was added to his changing trunk;and lest his former strength might cause great harm,all parts contracted till he measured lessthan common lizards. While the ancient damewondered and wept and strove for one caress,the reptile fled and sought a lurking place.—His very name describes him to the eye,a body starred with many coloured spots.“What lands, what oceans Ceres wandered then,would weary to relate. The bounded worldwas narrow for the search. Again she passedthrough Sicily; again observed all signs;and as she wandered came to Cyane,who strove to tell where Proserpine had gone,but since her change, had neither mouth nor tongue,and so was mute. And yet the Nymph made plainby certain signs what she desired to say:for on the surface of the waves she showeda well-known girdle Proserpine had lost,by chance had dropped it in that sacred pool;which when the goddess recognized, at last,convinced her daughter had been forced from her,she tore her streaming locks, and frenzied struckher bosom with her palms. And in her rage,although she wist not where her daughter was,she blamed all countries and cried out againsttheir base ingratitude; and she declaredthe world unworthy of the gift of corn:but Sicily before all other lands,for there was found the token of her loss.“For that she broke with savage hand the plows,which there had turned the soil, and full of wrathleveled in equal death the peasant and his ox—both tillers of the soil—and made decreethat land should prove deceptive to the seed,and rot all planted germs.—That fertile isle,so noted through the world, becomes a waste;the corn is blighted in the early blade;excessive heat, excessive rain destroys;the winds destroy, the constellations harm;the greedy birds devour the scattered seeds;thistles and tares and tough weeds choke the wheat.
Est medium Cyanes et Pisaeae Arethusae,quod coit angustis inclusum cornibus aequor.Hic fuit, a cuius stagnum quoque nomine dictum est,inter Sicelidas Cyane celeberrima nymphas.Gurgite quae medio summa tenus exstitit alvoagnovitque deam. “Nec longius ibitis!” inquit,“non potes invitae Cereris gener esse: roganda,non rapienda fuit. Quodsi componere magnisparva mihi fas est, et me dilexit Anapis:exorata tamen, nec, ut haec, exterrita nupsi.”Dixit et in partes diversas bracchia tendensobstitit. Haud ultra tenuit Saturnius iram,terribilesque hortatus equos in gurgitis imacontortum valido sceptrum regale lacertocondidit. Icta viam tellus in Tartara fecitet pronos currus medio cratere recepit.At Cyane, raptamque deam contemptaque fontisiura sui maerens, inconsolabile vulnusmente gerit tacita lacrimisque absumitur omnis,et quarum fuerat magnum modo numen, in illasossa pati flexus, ungues posuisse rigorem;extenuatur aquas. Molliri membra videres,primaque de tota tenuissima quaeque liquescunt,caerulei crines digitique et crura pedesque:nam brevis in gelidas membris exilibus undastransitus est: post haec umeri tergusque latusquepectoraque in tenues abeunt evanida rivos.Denique pro vivo vitiatas sanguine venaslympha subit, restatque nihil, quod prendere possis.Interea pavidae nequiquam filia matriomnibus est terris, omni quaesita profundo.Illam non udis veniens Aurora capilliscessantem vidit, non Hesperus. Illa duabusflammiferas pinus manibus succendit ab Aetnaperque pruinosas tulit inrequieta tenebras.Rursus ubi alma dies hebetarat sidera, natamsolis ab occasu solis quaerebat ad ortus.Fessa labore sitim conlegerat oraque nullicolluerant fontes; cum tectam stramine viditforte casam parvasque fores pulsavit: at indeprodit anus divamque videt, lymphamque rogantidulce dedit, tosta quod texerat ante polenta.Dum bibit illa datum, duri puer oris et audaxconstitit ante deam risitque avidamque vocavit.Offensa est neque adhuc epota parte loquentemcum liquido mixta perfudit diva polenta.Combibit os maculas, et quae modo bracchia gessit,crura gerit; cauda est mutatis addita membris;inque brevem formam, ne sit vis magna nocendi,contrahitur, parvaque minor mensura lacerta est.Mirantem flentemque et tangere monstra parantemfugit anum latebramque petit; aptumque colorinomen habet, variis stellatus corpora guttis.Quas dea per terras et quas erraverit undas,dicere longa mora est: quaerenti defuit orbis.Sicaniam repetit; dumque omnia lustrat eundo,venit et ad Cyanen. Ea ni mutata fuisset,omnia narrasset: sed et os et lingua volentidicere non aderant, nec quo loqueretur habebat.Signa tamen manifesta dedit notamque parenti,illo forte loco delapsam in gurgite sacro,Persephones zonam summis ostendit in undis.Quam simul agnovit, tamquam tunc denique raptamscisset, inornatos laniavit diva capilloset repetita suis percussit pectora palmis.Nescit adhuc, ubi sit: terras tamen increpat omnesingratasque vocat nec frugum munere dignas,Trinacriam ante alias, in qua vestigia damnirepperit. Ergo illic saeva vertentia glaebasfregit aratra manu, parilique irata colonosruricolasque boves leto dedit arvaque iussitfallere depositum vitiataque semina fecit.Fertilitas terrae latum vulgata per orbemfalsa iacet: primis segetes moriuntur in herbis,et modo sol nimius, nimius modo corripit imbersideraque ventique nocent, avidaeque volucressemina iacta legunt; lolium tribulique fatiganttriticeas messes et inexpugnabile gramen.
“For this the Nymph, Alpheian, raised her headabove Elean waves; and having firstpushed back her dripping tresses from her brows,back to her ears, she thus began to speak;‘O mother of the virgin, sought throughoutthe globe! O mother of nutritious fruits!Let these tremendous labours have an end;do not increase the violence of thy wrathagainst the Earth, devoted to thy sway,and not deserving blame; for only forcecompelled the Earth to open for that wrong.Think not my supplication is to aidmy native country; hither I am comean alien: Pisa is my native land,and Elis gave me birth. Though I sojourna stranger in this isle of Sicilyit yet delights me more than all the world.‘I, Arethusa, claim this isle my home,and do implore thee keep my throne secure,O greatest of the Gods! A better hour,when thou art lightened of thy cares, will come,and when thy countenance again is kind;and then may I declare what cause removedme from my native place—and through the wavesof such a mighty ocean guided meto find Ortygia.‘Through the porous earthby deepest caverns, I uplift my headand see unwonted stars. Now it befell,as I was gliding far beneath the world,where flow dark Stygian streams, I sawthy Proserpine. Although her countenancebetrayed anxiety and grief, a queen She reignedsupremely great in that opacous worldqueen consort mighty to the King of Hell.’“Astonished and amazed, as thunderstruck,when Proserpina's mother heard these words,long while she stood till great bewildermentgave way to heavy grief. Then to the skies,ethereal, she mounted in her carand with beclouded face and streaming hairstood fronting Jove, opprobrious. ‘I have comeO Jupiter, a suppliant to thee,both for my own offspring as well as thine.If thy hard heart deny a mother grace,yet haply as a father thou canst feelsome pity for thy daughter; and I praythy care for her may not be valued lessbecause my groaning travail brought her forth.—My long-sought daughter has at last been found,if one can call it, found, when certain lossmore certain has been proved; or so may deemthe knowledge of her state.—But I may bearhis rude ways, if again he bring her back.‘Thy worthy child should not be forced to weda bandit-chief, nor should my daughter's charmsreward his crime.’ She spoke;—and Jupitertook up the word; ‘This daughter is a care,a sacred pledge to me as well as thee;but if it please us to acknowledge truth,this is a deed of love and injures not.And if, O goddess, thou wilt not oppose,such law-son cannot compass our disgrace:for though all else were wanting, naught can needJove's brother, who in fortune yields to nonesave me. But if thy fixed desire compeldissent, let Proserpine return to Heaven;however, subject to the binding law,if there her tongue have never tasted food—a sure condition, by the Fates decreed.’he spoke; but Ceres was no less resolvedto lead her daughter thence.“Not so the Fatespermit.—The virgin, thoughtless while she strayedamong the cultivated Stygian fields,had broken fast. While there she plucked the fruitby bending a pomegranate tree, and plucked,and chewed seven grains, picked from the pallid rind;and none had seen except Ascalaphus—him Orphne, famed of all Avernian Nymphs,had brought to birth in some infernal cave,days long ago, from Acheron's embrace—he saw it, and with cruel lips debarredyoung Proserpine's return. Heaving a sigh,the Queen of Erebus, indignant changedthat witness to an evil bird: she turnedhis head, with sprinkled Phlegethonian lymph,into a beak, and feathers, and great eyes;his head grew larger and his shape, deformed,was cased in tawny wings; his lengthened nailsbent inward;—and his sluggish armsas wings can hardly move. So he becamethe vilest bird; a messenger of grief;the lazy owl; sad omen to mankind.“The telltale's punishment was only just;O Siren Maids, but wherefore thus have yethe feet and plumes of birds, although remainyour virgin features? Is it from the daywhen Proserpina gathered vernal flowers;because ye mingled with her chosen friends?And after she was lost, in vain ye soughtthrough all the world; and wished for wings to waftyou over the great deep, that soon the seamight feel your great concern.—The Gods were kind:ye saw your limbs grow yellow, with a growthof sudden-sprouting feathers; but becauseyour melodies that gently charm the ear,besides the glory of your speech, might losethe blessing, of a tongue, your virgin faceand human voice remained.“But Jupiter,the mediator of these rival claims,urged by his brother and his grieving sister,divided the long year in equal parts.Now Proserpina, as a Deity,of equal merit, in two kingdoms reigns:—for six months with her mother she abides,and six months with her husband.—Both her mindand her appearance quickly were transformed;for she who seemed so sad in Pluto's eyes,now as a goddess beams in joyful smiles;so, when the sun obscured by watery mistconquers the clouds, it shines in splendour forth.
Tum caput Eleis Alpheias extulit undisrorantesque comas a fronte removit ad auresatque ait: “O toto quaesitae virginis orbeet frugum genetrix, inmensos siste laboresneve tibi fidae violenta irascere terrae.Terra nihil meruit patuitque invita rapinae.Nec sum pro patria supplex: huc hospita veni;Pisa mihi patria est et ab Elide ducimus ortus;Sicaniam peregrina colo, sed gratior omnihaec mihi terra solo est: hos nunc Arethusa penates,hanc habeo sedem: quam tu, mitissima, serva.Mota loco cur sim tantique per aequoris undasadvehar Ortygiam, veniet narratibus horatempestiva meis, cum tu curaque levataet vultus melioris eris. Mihi pervia telluspraebet iter, subterque imas ablata cavernashic caput attollo desuetaque sidera cerno.Ergo dum Stygio sub terris gurgite labor,visa tua est oculis illic Proserpina nostris:illa quidem tristis neque adhuc interrita vultu,sed regina tamen, sed opaci maxima mundi,sed tamen inferni pollens matrona tyranni.”Mater ad auditas stupuit ceu saxea vocesattonitaeque diu similis fuit. Utque dolorepulsa gravi gravis est amentia, curribus orasexit in aetherias. Ibi toto nubila vultuante Iovem passis stetit invidiosa capillis“pro” que “meo veni supplex tibi, Iuppiter” inquit,“sanguine proque tuo. Si nulla est gratia matris,nata patrem moveat, neu sit tibi cura, precamur,vilior illius, quod nostro est edita partu.En quaesita diu tandem mihi nata reperta est,si reperire vocas amittere certius, aut siscire, ubi sit, reperire vocas. Quod rapta, feremus,dummodo reddat eam: neque enim praedone maritofilia digna tua est, si iam mea filia non est.”Iuppiter excepit: “Commune est pignus onusquenata mihi tecum. Sed si modo nomina rebusaddere vera placet, non hoc iniuria factum,verum amor est; neque erit nobis gener ille pudori,tu modo, diva, velis. Ut desint cetera, quantum estesse Iovis fratrem! — Quid quod non cetera desuntnec cedit nisi sorte mihi? sed tanta cupidosi tibi discidii est, repetet Proserpina caelum,lege tamen certa, si nullos contigit illicore cibos; nam sic Parcarum foedere cautum est.”Dixerat. At Cereri certum est educere natam.Non ita fata sinunt, quoniam ieiunia virgosolverat et, cultis dum simplex errat in hortis,Poeniceum curva decerpserat arbore pomumsumptaque pallenti septem de cortice granapresserat ore suo. Solusque ex omnibus illudAscalaphus vidit, quem quondam dicitur Orphne,inter Avernales haud ignotissima nymphas,ex Acheronte suo silvis peperisse sub atris:vidit et indicio reditum crudelis ademit.Ingemuit regina Erebi testemque profanamfecit avem, sparsumque caput Phlegethontide lymphain rostrum et plumas et grandia lumina vertit.Ille sibi ablatus fulvis amicitur in alis,inque caput crescit, longosque reflectitur unguesvixque movet natas per inertia bracchia pennas:foedaque fit volucris, venturi nuntia luctus,ignavus bubo, dirum mortalibus omen.Hic tamen indicio poenam linguaque videricommeruisse potest: vobis, Acheloides, undepluma pedesque avium, cum virginis ora geratis?an quia, cum legeret vernos Proserpina flores,in comitum numero, doctae Sirenes, eratis?Quam postquam toto frustra quaesistis in orbe,protinus, ut vestram sentirent aequora curam,posse super fluctus alarum insistere remisoptastis, facilesque deos habuistis et artusvidistis vestros subitis flavescere pennis.Ne tamen ille canor mulcendas natus ad aurestantaque dos oris linguae deperderet usum,virginei vultus et vox humana remansit.At medius fratrisque sui maestaeque sororisIuppiter ex aequo volventem dividit annum.Nunc dea, regnorum numen commune duorum,cum matre est totidem, totidem cum coniuge menses.Vertitur extemplo facies et mentis et oris:nam modo quae poterat Diti quoque maesta videri,laeta deae frons est, ut sol, qui tectus aquosisnubibus ante fuit, victis e nubibus exit.
“And genial Ceres, full of joy, that nowher daughter was regained, began to speak;‘Declare the reason of thy wanderings,O Arethusa! tell me wherefore thouwert made a sacred stream.’ The waters gaveno sound; but soon that goddess raised her headfrom the deep springs; and after sue had driedher green hair with her hand, with fair addressshe told the ancient amours of that streamwhich flows through Elis.—‘I was one amongthe Nymphs of old Achaia,’—so she said—‘And none of them more eager sped than I,along the tangled pathways; and I fixedthe hunting-nets with zealous care.—AlthoughI strove not for the praise that beauty gives,and though my form was something stout for grace,it had the name of being beautiful.‘So worthless seemed the praise, I took no joyin my appearance—as a country lassI blushed at those endowments which would givedelight to others—even the power to pleaseseemed criminal.—And I remember whenreturning weary from Stymphal fan woods,and hot with toil, that made the glowing sunseem twice as hot, I chanced upon a stream,that flowed without a ripple or a soundso smoothly on, I hardly thought it moved.‘The water was so clear that one could seeand count the pebbles in the deepest parts,and silver willows and tall poplar trees,nourished by flowing waters, spread their shadeover the shelving banks. So I approached,and shrinkingly touched the cool stream with my feet;and then I ventured deeper to my knees;and not contented doffed my fleecy robes,and laid them on a bending willow tree.Then, naked, I plunged deeply in the stream,and while I smote the water with my hands,and drew it towards me, striking boldly forth,moving my body in a thousand ways,I thought I heard a most unusual sound,a murmuring noise beneath the middle stream.‘Alarmed, I hastened to the nearest bank,and as I stood upon its edge, these wordshoarsely Alpheus uttered from his waves;‘Oh, whither dost thou hasten?’ and again,‘Oh, whither dost thou hasten?’ said the voice.‘Just as I was, I fled without my clothes,for I had left them on the other bank;which, when he saw, so much the more inflamed,more swiftly he pursued: my nakednesswas tempting to his gaze. And thus I ran;and thus relentlessly he pressed my steps:so from the hawk the dove with trembling wings;and so, the hawk pursues the frightened dove.‘Swiftly and long I fled, with winding course,to Orchamenus, Psophis and Cyllene,and Maenalus and Erymanthus cold,and Elis. Neither could he gain by speed,although his greater strength must soon prevail,for I not longer could endure the strain.‘Still I sped onward through the fields and woods,by tangled wilds and over rocks and crags;and as I hastened from the setting sun,I thought I saw a growing shadow movebeyond my feet; it may have been my fearimagined it, but surely now I heardthe sound of footsteps: I could even feelhis breathing on the loose ends of my hair;and I was terrified. At last, worn outby all my efforts to escape, I cried;‘Oh, help me—thou whose bow and quivered dartsI oft have borne—thy armour-bearer calls—O chaste Diana help,—or I am lost.’‘It moved the goddess, and she gathered upa dense cloud, and encompassed me about.—The baffled River circled round and round,seeking to find me, hidden in that cloud—twice went the River round, and twice cried out,‘Ho, Arethusa! Arethusa, Ho!’‘What were my wretched feelings then? Could Ibe braver than the Iamb that hears the wolves,howling around the high-protecting fold?Or than the hare, which lurking in the bushknows of the snarling hounds and dares not move?And yet, Alpheus thence would not depart,for he could find no footprints of my flight.‘He watched the cloud and spot, and thus besieged,a cold sweat gathered on my trembling limbs.The clear-blue drops, distilled from every pore,made pools of water where I moved my feet,and dripping moisture trickled from my hair.—Much quicker than my story could be told,my body was dissolved to flowing streams.—But still the River recognized the waves,and for the love of me transformed his shapefrom human features to his proper streams,that so his waters might encompass mine.‘Diana, therefore, opened up the ground,in which I plunged, and thence through gloomy caveswas carried to Ortygia—blessed isle!To which my chosen goddess gave her name!Where first I rose amid the upper air!’“Thus Arethusa made an end of speech:and presently the fertile goddess yokedtwo dragons to her chariot: she curbedtheir mouths with bits: they bore her through the air,in her light car betwixt the earth and skies,to the Tritonian citadel, and toTriptolemus, to whom she furnished seed,that he might scatter it in wasted lands,and in the fallow fields; which, after longneglect, again were given to the plow.“After he had traveled through uncharted skies,over wide Europe and vast Asian lands,he lit upon the coast of Scythia, wherea king called Lyncus reigned. And there, at oncehe sought the palace of that king, who said;‘Whence come you, stranger, wherefore in this land?Come, tell to me your nation and your name.’“And after he was questioned thus, he said,‘I came from far-famed Athens and they callmy name Triptolemus. I neither cameby ship through waves, nor over the dry land;for me the yielding atmosphere makes way.—I bear the gifts of Ceres to your land,which scattered over your wide realm may yieldan ample harvest of nutritious food.’“The envious Lyncus, wishing to appearthe gracious author of all benefits,received the unsuspecting youth with smiles;but when he fell into a heavy sleepthat savage king attacked him with a sword—but while attempting to transfix his guest,the goddess Ceres changed him to a lynx:—and once again she sent her favoured youthto drive her sacred dragons through the clouds.“The greatest of our number ended thusher learned songs; and with concordant voicethe chosen Nymphs adjudged the Deities,on Helicon who dwell, should be proclaimedthe victors.“But the vanquished nine beganto scatter their abuse; to whom rejoinedthe goddess; ‘Since it seems a trifling thingthat you should suffer a deserved defeat,and you must add unmerited abuseto heighten your offence, and since by thisappears the end of our endurance, weshall certainly proceed to punish youaccording to the limit of our wrath.’“But these Emathian sisters laughed to scornour threatening words; and as they tried to speak,and made great clamour, and with shameless handsmade threatening gestures, suddenly stiff quillssprouted from out their finger-nails, and plumesspread over their stretched arms; and they could seethe mouth of each companion growing outinto a rigid beak.—And thus new birdswere added to the forest.—While they madecomplaint, these Magpies that defile our groves,moving their stretched-out arms, began to float,suspended in the air. And since that timetheir ancient eloquence, their screaming notes,their tiresome zeal of speech have all remained.”
Exigit alma Ceres, nata secura recepta,quae tibi causa fugae, cur sis, Arethusa, sacer fons.Conticuere undae: quarum dea sustulit altofonte caput viridesque manu siccata capillosfluminis Elei veteres narravit amores.“Pars ego nympharum quae sunt in Achaide” dixit,“una fui, nec me studiosius altera saltuslegit nec posuit studiosius altera casses.Sed quamvis formae numquam mihi fama petita est,quamvis fortis eram, formosae nomen habebam.Nec mea me facies nimium laudata iuvabat,quaque aliae gaudere solent, ego rustica dotecorporis erubui, crimenque placere putavi.Lassa revertebar (memini) Stymphalide silva:aestus erat, magnumque labor geminaverat aestum.Invenio sine vertice aquas, sine murmure euntes,perspicuas ad humum, per quas numerabilis altecalculus omnis erat, quas tu vix ire putares.Cana salicta dabant nutritaque populus undasponte sua natas ripis declivibus umbras.Accessi primumque pedis vestigia tinxi,poplite deinde tenus: neque eo contenta, recingormolliaque impono salici velamina curvaenudaque mergor aquis. Quas dum ferioque trahoquemille modis labens excussaque bracchia iacto,nescio quod medio sensi sub gurgite murmurterritaque insisto propioris margine ripae.“Quo properas, Arethusa?” suis Alpheus ab undis,“quo properas?” iterum rauco mihi dixerat ore.Sicut eram, fugio sine vestibus: altera vestesripa meas habuit. Tanto magis instat et ardet,et quia nuda fui, sum visa paratior illi.Sic ego currebam, sic me ferus ille premebat,ut fugere accipitrem penna trepidante columbae,ut solet accipiter trepidas urgere columbas.Usque sub Orchomenon Psophidaque CyllenenqueMaenaliosque sinus gelidumque Erymanthon et Elincurrere sustinui; nec me velocior ille.Sed tolerare diu cursus ego, viribus impar,non poteram: longi patiens erat ille laboris.Per tamen et campos, per opertos arbore montes,saxa quoque et rupes et qua via nulla, cucurri.Sol erat a tergo: vidi praecedere longamante pedes umbram, nisi si timor illa videbat;sed certe sonitusque pedum terrebat et ingenscrinales vittas adflabat anhelitus oris.Fessa labore fugae “fer opem, deprendimur” inquam,“armigerae, Diana, tuae, cui saepe dedistiferre tuos arcus inclusaque tela pharetra.”Mota dea est spissisque ferens e nubibus unamme super iniecit. Lustrat caligine tectamamnis et ignarus circum cava nubila quaerit.Bisque locum, quo me dea texerat inscius ambitet bis “io Arethusa io Arethusa!” vocavit.Quid mihi tunc animi miserae fuit? anne quod agnae est,siqua lupos audit circum stabula alta frementes,aut lepori, qui vepre latens hostilia cernitora canum nullosque audet dare corpore motus?Non tamen abscedit: neque enim vestigia cernitlongius ulla pedum: servat nubemque locumque.Occupat obsessos sudor mihi frigidus artus,caeruleaeque cadunt toto de corpore guttae,quaque pedem movi, manat lacus, eque capillisros cadit, et citius, quam nunc tibi facta renarro,in latices mutor. Sed enim cognoscit amatasamnis aquas, positoque viri, quod sumpserat, orevertitur in proprias, ut se mihi misceat, undas.Delia rupit humum; caecisque ego mersa cavernisadvehor Ortygiam, quae me cognomine divaegrata meae superas eduxit prima sub auras.”Hac Arethusa tenus. Geminos dea fertilis anguescurribus admovit frenisque coercuit oraet medium caeli terraeque per aera vecta estatque levem currum Tritonida misit in urbemTriptolemo; partimque rudi data semina iussitspargere humo, partim post tempora longa recultae.Iam super Europen sublimis et Asida terramvectus erat iuvenis; Scythicas advertitur oras.Rex ibi Lyncus erat: regis subit ille penates.Qua veniat, causamque viae nomenque rogatuset patriam, “patria est clarae mihi” dixit “Athenae,Triptolemus nomen. Veni nec puppe per undas,nec pede per terras: patuit mihi pervius aether.Dona fero Cereris latos quae sparsa per agrosfrugiferas messes alimentaque mitia reddant.”Barbarus invidit; tantique ut muneris auctoripse sit, hospitio recipit somnoque gravatumadgreditur ferro. Conantem figere pectuslynca Ceres fecit rursusque per aera iussitMopsopium iuvenem sacros agitare iugales.”Finierat doctos e nobis maxima cantus.At nymphae vicisse deas Helicona colentesconcordi dixere sono. Convicia victaecum iacerent, “quoniam” dixit “certamine vobissupplicium meruisse parum est maledictaque culpaeadditis et non est patientia libera nobis,ibimus in poenas et, qua vocat ira, sequemur.”Rident Emathides spernuntque minantia verba:conataeque loqui et magno clamore protervasintentare manus, pennas exire per unguesadspexere suos, operiri bracchia plumis;alteraque alterius rigido concrescere rostroora videt volucresque novas accedere silvis.Dumque volunt plangi, per bracchia mota levataeaere pendebant, nemorum convicia, picae.Nunc quoque in alitibus facundia prisca remansitraucaque garrulitas studiumque inmane loquendi.”