X. 7.] Orpheus and Eurydice. 97 XIV. ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE. [Book X.-1-77.] [ALCMENE, mother of Hercules, to entertain Iole (who had married his son Hyllus), relates the tale of Hercules' birth, which was long delayed, but at last brought about by the artifice of Galanthis, a waiting maid; who, for the falsehood she told, was turned into a weasel by Ilithyia, whom she had deceived (IX. 273-323). Ioie relates in turn of her sister Dryope, changed to a lotus (324-339). The restoring of Iolaus to youth, and the miraculous manhood bestowed on the children of Callirhoë, having moved the displeasure of some of the gods, Jupiter reminds them of the painful oid age of his own son Minos (400-442). The tale is told of Byblis, daughter of Miletus (who had migrated from Crete to Asia): she, filled with a guilty love for her brother Cannus, became a fountain in Caria (443-665). Iphis, daughter of Ligdus of Crete, having been brought up as a youth to avoid her father's displeasure that a daughter was born to him, was at length changed to a young man by Isis, and so became the husband of Ianthe (666–797).] Hymen, proceeding to Thrace, after the marriage of Iphis, unites Orpheus to Eurydice, but not happily, for she died from the bite of a serpent. To recover her, Orpheus penetrated the shadows of the Lower World, where even the Furies are moved to tears at his song, the pains of hell are stayed, and Proserpine is won to yield him back his wife, only on condition that he shall not look behind him till again in the upper world. Turning about too soon, in his eagerness to see her, he loses her again, and is not suffered a second time to enter Hades (X. 1–77). INDE per immensum croceo velatus amictu aethera digreditur, Ciconumque Hymenaeus ad oras tendit, et Orphea nequiquam voce vocatur. 5 dum nova naïadum turba comitata vagatur, occidit, in talum serpentis dente recepto. Quam satis ad superas postquam Rhodopeït deflevit vates, ne non temptaret et umbras, ad Styga Taenaria est ausus descendere porta perque leves populos simulacraque functa sepu Persephonen adiit, inamoenaque regna tenente umbrarum dominum. Pulsisque ad carmina n sic ait: O positi sub terra numina mundi, in quem recidimus, quicquid mortale creamur ; si licet, et falsi positis ambagibus oris vera loqui sinitis, non huc, ut opaca viderem Tartara, descendi, nec uti villosa colubris terna Medusaei vincirem guttura monstri. causa viae conjunx, in quam calcata venenum vipera diffudit, crescentesque abstulit annos. posse pati volui, nec me temptasse negabo: vicit Amor. Supera deus hic bene notus in ora an sit et hic, dubito, sed et hic tamen auguror es famaque si veteris non est mentita rapinae, vos quoque junxit Amor. Per ego haec loca timoris, per Chaos hoc ingens, vastique silentia regni, Eurydices, oro, properata retexite fata. omnia debemur vobis, paulumque morati serius aut citius sedem properamus ad unam. tendimus huc omnes, haec est domus ultima; vos humani generis longissima regna tenetis. haec quoque, cum justos matura peregerit annos, juris erit vestri. Pro munere poscimus usum. quod si fata negant veniam pro conjuge, certum e nolle redire mihi: leto gaudete duorum.' X. 74.] Half-won, but lost again. exsangues flebant animae; nec Tantalus undam Carpitur acclivis per muta silentia trames, arduus, obscurus, caligine densus opaca. nec procul afuerunt telluris margine summae : hic, ne deficeret metuens, avidusque videndi, flexit amans oculos; et protinus illa relapsa est, bracchiaque intendens prendique et prendere captans nil nisi cedentes infelix arripit auras. 45 jamque iterum moriens non est de conjuge quicquam questa suo: quid enim nisi se quereretur amatam? supremumque Vale! quod jam vix auribus ille acciperet, dixit, revolutaque rursus eodem est. Non aliter stupuit gemina nece conjugis Orpheus, quam tria qui timidus, medio portante catenas, colla canis vidit; quem non pavor ante reliquit, quam natura prior, saxo per corpus oborto: quique in se crimen traxit voluitque videri Olenos esse nocens, tuque O confisa figurae, infelix Lethaea, tuae, junctissima quondam pectora, nunc lapides, quos humida sustinet Ide. Orantem frustraque iterum transire volentem portitor arcuerat. Septem tamen ille diebus squalidus in ripa Cereris sine munere sedit; 347502 50 55 65 70 100 The Song of Orpheus. [METAM. cura dolorque animi lacrimaeque alimenta fuere. 75 esse deos Erebi crudeles questus, in altam se recipit Rhodopen pulsumque aquilonibus Haemum. XV. THE SONG OF ORPHEUS. [Book X.-86-219.] WITHDRAWN apart from the love of women, and having gathered by his song a grove of forest trees [among them the pine which was once the youth Attis, and Cyparissus changed by Apollo into a Cypress], Orpheus sings of the loves of the gods for mortal And first of Ganymede of Troy, borne to heaven by Jupiter in the form of an eagle (143–161); and of Hyacinthus, a beautiful youth of Sparta, beloved by Apollo, but accidentally killed by him with a discus (or quoit) that he had hurled into the air; from whose blood sprang the flower that bears his name (162-219). men. [He further sings of certain people of Cyprus, cruel to strangers, who by Venus were changed to oxen (220-237); of the statue wrought by Pygmalion, which became a living maiden, and his bride (243-297); of Myrrha, who because of her incestuous love of her father became a tree weeping fragrant gum (298–502); of her child Adonis, loved by Venus (503-559); of Atalanta, fleet of foot, who was won in the race by craft of Hippomenes with three golden apples, but both were afterwards changed into lions (560–707); and of the death of Adonis, slain by a wild boar, and by Venus converted into the flower Anemone, as Menthe had aforetime been by Proserpine into the herb Mint (708-739).] COLLIS erat, collemque super planissima campi area, quam viridem faciebant graminis herbae. umbra loco deërat: qua postquam parte resedit dis genitus vates, et fila sonantia movit, umbra loco venit. Non Chaonis afuit arbor, non nemus Heliadum, non frondibus aesculus altis, 90 X. 162.] The Rape of Ganymede. nec tiliae molles, nec fagus et innuba laurus, Tale nemus vates attraxerat; inque ferarum ΙΟΙ 95 100 105 145 150 Ab Jove, Musa parens (cedunt Jovis omnia regno) carmina nostra move: Jovis est mihi saepe potestas dicta prius. Cecini plectro graviore Gigantas, sparsaque Phlegraeis victricia fulmina campis ; nunc opus est leviore lyra, puerosque canamus dilectos superis, inconcessisque puellas ignibus attonitas meruisse libidine poenam. 'Rex superum Phrygii quondam Ganymedis amore arsit, et inventum est aliquid, quod Juppiter esse, quam quod erat, mallet. Nulla tamen alite verti dignatur, nisi quae posset sua fulmina ferre. nec mora: percusso mendacibus aëre pennis abripit Iliaden, qui nunc quoque pocula miscet, invitaque Jovi nectar Junone ministrat. 160 Te quoque, Amyclide, posuisset in aethere Phoebus, |