---
title: "Metamorphoses"
author: "Ovid"
translator: "Brookes More"
title_ru: "Метаморфозы"
author_ru: "Овидий"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Classical Latin"
section: 24 of 30
url: https://scriptura.si/works/ovid-metamorphoses/24/
cite: "Ovid, tr. Brookes More, Metamorphoses, section 24. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/ovid-metamorphoses/24/"
---

# Metamorphoses

*Ovid, tr. Brookes More*

Russian: Метаморфозы, Овидий

Bodies changed into new forms, from the creation of the world to the deification of Julius Caesar: Daphne, Narcissus, Pyramus and Thisbe, Icarus, Orpheus.

> Latin: ed. Hugo Magnus, from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit, phi0959.phi006, CC BY-SA 4.0).

> English: Brookes More, from the Perseus Digital Library (phi0959.phi006.perseus-eng3). Notes are not included.

> Rows follow the references the two texts share (line numbers), cut where both reach the end of a sentence.

## 24. Book XII · lines 429–628

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/ovid-metamorphoses/24/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/ovid-metamorphoses/24/#p-N

[¶0] “Another sight still comes before my eyes,
the centaur Phaeocomes with his log.
He wore six lion skins well wrapped around
his body, and with fixed connecting knots
they covered him, both horse and man. He hurled
a trunk two yokes of oxen scarce could move
and struck the hapless son of Olenus
a crushing blow upon the head. The broad
round dome was shattered, and his dying brains
oozed out through hollow nostrils, mouth, and ears,
as curdled milk seeps down through oaken twigs;
or other liquors, crushed out under weights,
flow through a well-pierced sieve and, thick,
squeeze out through numerous holes.
As he began
to spoil his victim—and your father can
affirm the truth of this—I thrust my sword
deep in the wretch's groin. Chthonius, too,
and Teleboas fell there by my sword.
The former had a two-pronged stick as his
sole weapon, and the other had a spear,
with which the wounded me. You see the scar.
The old scar still is surely visible!
“Those were my days of youth and strength, and then
I ought to have warred against the citadel
of Pergama. I could have checked, or even
vanquished, the arms of Hector: but, alas,
Hector had not been born, or was perhaps
a boy. Old age has dulled my youthful strength.
What use is it, to speak of Periphas,
who overcame Pyretus, double-formed?
Why tell of Ampyx, who with pointless shaft,
victorious thrust Echeclus through the face?
Macareus, hurling a heavy crowbar pierced
Erigdupus and laid him low.
A hunting spear that Nessus strongly hurled,
was buried in the groin of Cymelus.
Do not believe that Mopsus, son of Ampycus,
was merely a prophet of events to come,
he slew a daring two-formed monster there.
Hodites tried in vain to speak, before
his death, but could not, for his tongue was nailed
against his chin, his chin against his throat.
“Five of the centaurs Caeneus put to death:
Styphelus, Bromus, and Antimachus,
Elymus, and Pyracmos with his axe.
I have forgot their wounds but noted well
their names and number. Latreus, huge of limb,
had killed and stripped Emathian Halesus.
Now in his armor he came rushing out,
in years he was between old age and youth;
but he retained the vigor of his youth;
his temples showed his hair was mixed with grey.
Conspicuous for his Macedonian lance
and sword and shield, facing both sides—each way,
he insolently clashed his arms; and while
he rode poured out these words in empty air.
“‘Shall I put up with one like you, O Caeneus?
For you are still a woman in my sight.
Have you forgot your birth or that disgrace
by which you won reward—at what a price
you got the false resemblance to a man?!
Consider both your birth, and what you have
submitted to! Take up a distaff, and
wool basket! Twist your threads with practiced thumb!
Leave warfare to your men!’
“While puffed-up pride
was vaunting out such nonsense, Caeneus hurled
a spear and pierced the stretched out running side,
just where the man was joined upon the horse.
“The Centaur, Latreus, raved with pain and struck
with his great pike, the face of Caeneus.
His pike rebounded as the hail that slants
up from the roof; or as a pebble might
rebound from hollow drum. Then coming near,
he tried to drive a sword into the hard side
of Caeneus, but it could not make a wound.
‘Aha!’ he cried, ‘this will not get you off.
The good edge of my sword will take your life,
although the point is blunt!’ He turned the edge
against the flank of Caeneus and swung round
the hero's loins with his long, curving arm.
The flesh resounded like a marble block,
the keen blade shattered on the unyielding skin.
“And, after Caeneus had exposed his limbs
unhurt to Latreus, who stood there amazed,
‘Come now,’ he said, ‘and let us try my steel
against your body!’ And, clear to the hilt,
down through the monster's shoulder-blade he plunged
his deadly sword and, turning it again,
deep in the Centaur's entrails, made new wounds
within his wound.
“Then, quite beside themselves,
the double-natured monsters rushed against
that single-handed youth with huge uproar,
and thrust and hurled their weapons all at him.
Their blunted weapons fell and he remained
unharmed and without even a mark.”
“That strange sight left them speechless. ‘Oh what shame!’
at length cried Monychus, ‘Our mighty host,—
a nation of us, are defeated and defied
by one who hardly is a man. Although
indeed, he is a man, and we have proved,
by our weak actions, we are certainly
what he was! Shame on us! Oh, what if we
have twofold strength, of what avail our huge
and mighty limbs, doubly united in
the strongest, hugest bodies in this world?
And how can I believe that we were born
of any goddess? It is surely vain
to claim descent of great Ixion, who
high-souled, sought Juno for his mighty mate;
imagine it, while we are conquered by
an enemy, who is but half a man!
Wake up! and let us heap tree-trunks and stones
and mountains on him! Crush his stubborn life!
Let forests smother him to death! Their weight
will be as deadly as a hundred wounds!’
“While he was raving, by some chance he found
a tree thrown down there by the boisterous wind:
example to the rest, he threw that tree
against the powerful foe; and in short time
Othrys was bare of trees, and Pelion had no shade.
Buried under that mountainous forest heap,
Caeneus heaved up against the weight of oaks
upon his brawny shoulders piled. But, as
the load increased above his face and head,
he could not draw a breath. Gasping for life,
he strove to lift his head into the air,
and sometimes he convulsed the towering mass,
as if great Ida, now before our eyes,
should tremble with some heaving of the earth.
“What happened to him could not well be known.
Some thought his body was borne down by weight
into the vast expanse of Tartarus.
The son of Ampycus did not agree,
for from the middle of the pile we saw
a bird with golden wings mount high in air.
Before or since, I never saw the like.
“When Mopsus was aware of that bird's flight—
it circled round the camp on rustling wings—
with eyes and mind he followed it and shouted aloud:
‘Hail, glory of the Lapithaean race,
their greatest hero, now a bird unique!’
and we believed the verdict of the seer.
“Our grief increased resentment, and we bore
it with disgust that one was overwhelmed
by such a multitude. Then in revenge
we plied our swords, till half our foes were dead,
and only flight and darkness saved the rest.”

> Latin: Ante oculos stat et ille meos, qui sena leonum
vinxerat inter se conexis vellera nodis,
Phaeocomes, hominemque simul protectus equumque.
Codice qui misso, quem vix iuga bina moverent,
Tectaphon Oleniden a summo vertice fregit.
Ast ego, dum parat hic armis nudare iacentem,
(scit tuus hoc genitor) gladium spoliantis in ima
ilia demisi. Chthonius quoque Teleboasque
ense iacent nostro: ramum prior ille bifurcum
gesserat, hic iaculum; iaculo mihi vulnera fecit:
signa vides! adparet adhuc vetus inde cicatrix.
Tunc ego debueram capienda ad Pergama mitti,
tum poteram magni, si non superare, morari
Hectoris arma meis! Illo sed tempore nullus,
aut puer Hector erat, nunc me mea deficit aetas.
Quid tibi victorem gemini Periphanta Pyraethi,
Ampyca quid referam, qui quadrupedantis Echecli
fixit in adverso cornum sine cuspide vultu?
Vecte Pelethronium Macareus in pectus adacto
stravit Erigdupum, memini et venabula condi
inguine Nesseis manibus coniecta Cymeli.
Nec tu credideris tantum cecinisse futura
Ampyciden Mopsum: Mopso iaculante biformis
accubuit frustraque loqui temptavit Hodites
ad mentum lingua mentoque ad guttura fixo.
Quinque neci Caeneus dederat, Styphelumque Bromumque
Antimachumque Elymumque securiferumque Pyraechmen:
vulnera non memini, numerum nomenque notavi.
Provolat Emathii spoliis armatus Alesi,
quem dederat leto, membris et corpore Latreus
maximus: huic aetas inter iuvenemque senemque,
vis iuvenalis erat, variabant tempora cani.
Qui clipeo gladioque Macedoniaque sarisa
conspicuus faciemque obversus in agmen utrumque
armaque concussit certumque equitavit in orbem
verbaque tot fudit vacuas animosus in auras:
“Et te, Caeni, feram? Nam tu mihi femina semper,
tu mihi Caenis eris. Nec te natalis origo
commonuit, mentemque subit, quo praemia facto
quaque viri falsam speciem mercede parasti?
Quid sis nata, vide, vel quid sis passa, columque,
i, cape cum calathis et stamina pollice torque:
bella relinque viris.” Iactanti talia Caeneus
extentum cursu missa latus eruit hasta,
qua vir equo commissus erat. Furit ille dolore
nudaque Phyllei iuvenis ferit ora sarisa.
Non secus haec resilit, quam tecti a culmine grando,
aut siquis parvo feriat cava tympana saxo.
Comminus adgreditur laterique recondere duro
luctatur gladium: gladio loca pervia non sunt.
“Haud tamen effugies! medio iugulaberis ense,
quandoquidem mucro est hebes” inquit et in latus ensem
obliquat longaque amplectitur ilia dextra.
Plaga facit gemitus in corpore marmoris icti,
fractaque dissiluit percusso lammina callo.
Ut satis inlaesos miranti praebuit artus,
“nunc age,” ait Caeneus, “nostro tua corpora ferro
temptemus!” capuloque tenus demisit in armos
ensem fatiferum caecumque in viscera movit
versavitque manu vulnusque in vulnere fecit.
Ecce ruunt vasto rabidi clamore bimembres
telaque in hunc omnes unum mittuntque feruntque.
Tela retusa cadunt: manet inperfossus ab omni
inque cruentatus Caeneus Elateius ictu.
Fecerat attonitos nova res. “Heu dedecus ingens!”
Monychus exclamat, “populus superamur ab uno
vixque viro: quamquam ille vir est, nos segnibus actis
quod fuit ille, sumus! Quid membra inmania prosunt?
Quid geminae vires et quod fortissima rerum
in nobis duplex natura animalia iunxit?
Nec nos matre dea, nec nos Ixione natos
esse reor, qui tantus erat, Iunonis ut altae
spem caperet: nos semimari superamur ab hoste!
Saxa trabesque super totosque involvite montes
vivacemque animam missis elidite silvis!
silva premat fauces, et erit pro vulnere pondus.”
Dixit et insanis deiectam viribus austri
forte trabem nactus validum coniecit in hostem
exemplumque fuit, parvoque in tempore nudus
arboris Othrys erat, nec habebat Pelion umbras.
Obrutus inmani tumulo sub pondere Caeneus
aestuat arboreo congestaque robora duris
fert umeris. Sed enim postquam super ora caputque
crevit onus neque habet, quas ducat, spiritus auras,
deficit interdum, modo se super aera frustra
tollere conatur iactasque evolvere silvas,
interdumque movet, veluti, quam cernimus, ecce,
ardua si terrae quatiatur motibus Ide.
Exitus in dubio est: alii sub inania corpus
Tartara detrusum silvarum mole ferebant;
abnuit Ampycides medioque ex aggere fulvis
vidit avem pennis liquidas exire sub auras,
quae mihi tum primum, tunc est conspecta supremum.
Hanc ubi lustrantem leni sua castra volatu
Mopsus et ingenti circum clangore sonantem
adspexit pariterque animis oculisque secutus
“o salve” dixit, “Lapithaeae gloria gentis,
maxime vir quondam, sed nunc avis unica, Caeneu!”
Credita res auctore suo est: dolor addidit iram,
oppressumque aegre tulimus tot ab hostibus unum;
nec prius abstitimus ferro exercere dolorem,
quam data pars leto, partem fuga noxque removit.”

[¶1] Nestor had hardly told this marvellous tale
of bitter strife betwixt the Lapithae
and those half-human, vanquished Centaurs, when
Tlepolemus, incensed because no word
of praise was given to Hercules, replied
in this way; “Old sir, it is very strange,
you have neglected to say one good word
in praise of Hercules. My father told
me often, that he overcame in battle
those cloud born centaurs.”
Nestor, very loth,
replied, “Why force me to recall old wrongs,
to uncover sorrow buried by the years,
that made me hate your father? It is true
his deeds were wonderful beyond belief,
heaven knows, and filled the earth with well earned praise
which I should rather wish might be denied.
Deiphobus, the wise Polydamas, and even
great Hector get no praise from me.
Your father, I recall once overthrew
Messene's walls and with no cause destroyed
Elis and Pylos and with fire and sword
ruined my own loved home. I cannot name
all whom he killed. But there were twelve of us,
the sons of Neleus and all warrior youths,
and all those twelve but me alone he killed.
Ten of them met the common fate of war,
but sadder was the death of Periclymenus.
“Neptune, the founder of my family,
had granted him a power to assume
whatever shape he chose, and when he wished
to lay that shape aside. When he, in vain,
had been transformed to many other shapes
he turned into the form of that bird, which
is wont to carry in his crooked talons
the forked lightnings, favorite bird of Jove.
With wings and crooked bill and sharp-hooked talons,
he assailed and tore the face of Hercules.
But, when he soared away on eagle wings
up to the clouds and hovered, poised in air,
that hero aimed his too unerring bow
and hit him where the new wing joined his side.
The wound was not large, but his sinews cut
failed to uphold him, and denied his wings
their strength and motion. He fell down to earth;
his weakened pinions could not catch the air.
And the sharp arrow, which had lightly pierced
the wing, was driven upward through the side
into the left part of my brother's neck.
“O noble leader of the Rhodian fleet,
why should I sing the praise of Hercules?
But for my brothers I take no revenge
except withholding praise of his great deeds.
With you, my friendship will remain secure.”
When Nestor with his honied tongue had told
these tales of old, they all took wine again
and they arose and gave the night to sleep.

> Latin: Haec inter Lapithas et semihomines Centauros
proelia Tlepolemus Pylio referente dolorem
praeteriti Alcidae tacito non pertulit ore
atque ait: “Herculeae mirum est oblivia laudis
acta tibi, senior! Certe mihi saepe referre
nubigenas domitos a se pater esse solebat.”
Tristis ad haec Pylius: “Quid me meminisse malorum
cogis et obductos oculis rescindere luctus
inque tuum genitorem odium offensasque fateri?
Ille quidem maiora fide, di! gessit et orbem
inplevit meritis, quod mallem posse negare:
sed neque Deiphobum nec Polydamanta nec ipsum
Hectora laudamus—quis enim laudaverit hostem?
Ille tuus genitor Messenia moenia quondam
stravit et inmeritas urbes Elimque Pylumque
diruit inque meos ferrum flammamque penatis
inpulit, utque alios taceam, quos ille peremit,
bis sex Nelidae fuimus, conspecta iuventus:
bis sex Herculeis ceciderunt me minus uno
viribus; atque alios vinci potuisse ferendum est:
mira Periclymeni mors est, cui posse figuras
sumere, quas vellet, rursusque reponere sumptas
Neptunus dederat, Nelei sanguinis auctor.
Hic ubi nequiquam est formas variatus in omnes,
vertitur in faciem volucris, quae fulmina curvis
ferre solet pedibus divum gratissima regi;
Viribus usus avis pennis rostroque redunco
hamatisque viri laniaverat unguibus ora:
tendit in hunc nimium certos Tirynthius arcus
atque inter nubes sublimia membra ferentem
pendentemque ferit, lateri qua iungitur ala;
nec grave vulnus erat sed rupti vulnere nervi
deficiunt motumque negant viresque volandi.
Decidit in terram, non concipientibus auras
infirmis pennis, et qua levis haeserat alae,
corporis adfixi pressa est gravitate sagitta
perque latus summum iugulo est exacta sinistro.
Nunc videor debere tui praeconia rebus
Herculis, o Rhodiae rector pulcherrime classis?
Nec tamen ulterius, quam fortia facta silendo
ulciscor fratres: solida est mihi gratia tecum.”
Haec postquam dulci Neleius edidit ore,
a sermone senis repetito munere Bacchi
surrexere toris: nox est data cetera somno.

[¶2] But Neptune, who commands the ocean waves,
lamented with a father's grief his son,
whose person he had changed into a bird—
the swan of Phaethon, and towards Achilles,
grim victor in the fight, his lasting hate
made him pursue resentment far beyond
the ordinary manner of the gods.
After nine years of war he spoke these words,
addressing long haired Sminthean Apollo:
“O nephew the most dear to me of all
my brother's sons, with me you built in vain
the walls of Troy: you must be lost in grief,
when you look on those towers so soon to fall?
Or do you not lament the multitudes
slain in defence of them—To name but one:
“Does not the ghost of Hector, dragged around
his Pergama, appear to you? And yet
the fierce Achilles, who is bloodstained more
than slaughtering war, lives on this earth,
for the destruction of our toil. Let him
once get into my power, and I will make
him feel the action of my triple spear.
But, since I may not meet him face to face,
do you with sudden arrow give him death.”
The Delian god, Apollo, gave assent,
both for his own hate and his uncle's rage.
Veiled in a cloud, he found the Trojan host
and, there, while bloody strife went on, he saw
the hero Paris shoot at intervals
his arrows at the nameless host of Greeks.
Revealing his divinity, he said:
“Why spend your arrows on the common men
if you would serve your people, take good aim
at great Achilles and at last avenge
your hapless brothers whom he gave to death.”
He pointed out Achilles—laying low
the Trojan warriors with his mighty spear.
On him he turned the Trojan's willing bow
and guided with his hand the fatal shaft.
It was the first joy that old Priam knew
since Hector's death. So then Achilles you,
who overcame the mighty, were subdued
by a coward who seduced a Grecian wife!
Ah, if you could not die by manly hands,
your choice had been the axe.
Now that great terror of the Trojan race,
the glory and defence of the Pelasgians,
Achilles, first in war, lay on the pyre.
The god of Fire first armed, then burned, his limbs.
And now he is but ashes; and of him, so great,
renowned and mighty, but a pitiful
handful of small dust insufficient for
a little urn! But all his glory lives
enough to fill the world—a great reward.
And in that glory is his real life:
in a true sense he will never know the void
of Tartarus.
But soon his very shield—
that men might know to whom it had belonged—
brings war, and arms are taken for his arms.
Neither Diomed nor Ajax called the less
ventured to claim the hero's mighty shield.
Menelaus and other warlike chiefs,
even Agamemnon, all withdrew their claims.
Only the greater Ajax and Ulysses
had such assurance that they dared contest
for that great prize. Then Agamemnon chose
to avoid the odium of preferring one.
He bade the Argolic chieftains take their seats
within the camp and left to all of them
the hearing and decision of the cause.

> Latin: At deus, aequoreas qui cuspide temperat undas,
in volucrem corpus nati Phaethontida versum
mente dolet patria saevumque perosus Achillem
exercet memores plus quam civiliter iras,
iamque fere tracto duo per quinquennia bello
talibus intonsum conpellat Sminthea dictis:
“O mihi de fratris longe gratissime natis,
inrita qui mecum posuisti moenia Troiae,
ecquid, ubi has iamiam casuras adspicis arces,
ingemis? Aut ecquid tot defendentia muros
milia caesa doles? Ecquid, ne persequar omnes,
Hectoris umbra subit circum sua Pergama tracti?
cum tamen ille ferox belloque cruentior ipso
vivit adhuc, operis nostri populator, Achilles.
Det mihi se! faxo, triplici quid cuspide possim,
sentiat; at quoniam concurrere comminus hosti
non datur, occulta necopinum perde sagitta!”
Adnuit atque animo pariter patruique suoque
Delius indulgens nebula velatus in agmen
pervenit Iliacum mediaque in caede virorum
rara per ignotos spargentem cernit Achivos
tela Parim fassusque deum “Quid spicula perdis
sanguine plebis?” ait. “Siqua est tibi cura tuorum,
vertere in Aeaciden caesosque ulciscere fratres!”
Dixit et ostendens sternentem Troica ferro
corpora Peliden, arcus obvertit in illum
certaque letifera direxit spicula dextra.
Quod Priamus gaudere senex post Hectora posset,
hoc fuit: ille igitur tantorum victor, Achille,
victus es a timido Graiae raptore maritae!
At si femineo fuerat tibi Marte cadendum,
Thermodontiaca malles cecidisse bipenni!
Iam timor ille Phrygum, decus et tutela Pelasgi
nominis, Aeacides, caput insuperabile bello,
arserat: armarat deus idem idemque cremabat;
iam cinis est, et de tam magno restat Achille
nescio quid parvam, quod non bene conpleat urnam:
at vivit totum quae gloria conpleat orbem!
Haec illi mensura viro respondet, et hac est
par sibi Pelides nec inania Tartara sentit.
Ipse etiam, ut, cuius fuerit, cognoscere posses
bella movet clipeus, deque armis arma feruntur.
Non ea Tydides, non audet Oileos Aiax,
non minor Atrides, non bello maior et aevo
poscere, non alii: solis Telamone creato
Laerteque fuit tantae fiducia laudis.
A se Tantalides onus invidiamque removit
Argolicosque duces mediis considere castris
iussit et arbitrium litis traiecit in omnes.