Delphi Complete Works of Longus

by Longus

  1.21 After he had waited a little while, Chloe came driving the flocks to the spring, having left Daphnis cutting fresh foliage for the kids to eat after pasture. The dogs who assisted them to guard the sheep and goats followed her: and, with the natural curiosity of keen-scented animals, they tracked and discovered Dorcon preparing to attack the maiden. With a loud bark, they rushed upon him as if he had been a wolf, surrounded him, before he was able in his astonishment to rise upon his feet, and bit at him furiously. At first, afraid of being recognised, and being for some time protected by the skin which covered him, he lay in the thicket without uttering a word: but when Chloe, terrified at the first sight of the supposed animal, shouted for Daphnis to help her, and the dogs, having torn off the skin, began to fix their teeth in his body, he cried out loudly and implored Chloe and Daphnis, who had just come up, to assist him.

  They quickly calmed the dogs with their familiar shout; then taking Dorcon, who had been bitten in the legs and shoulders, to the fountain, they washed his wounds, where the dogs’ teeth had entered the flesh, and chewed the green bark of an elm-tree and spread it over them. In their ignorance of the audacity prompted by love, they thought that Dorcon had merely put on the wolf’s skin for a joke: wherefore they felt no anger against him, but tried to console him, and, having helped him along a little distance, sent him on his way.

  Καὶ ὁ μὲν κινδύνου παρὰ τοσοῦτον ἐλθὼν καὶ σωθεὶς ἐκ κυνός, οὐ λύκου στόματος, ἐθεράπευε τὸ σῶμα: ὁ δὲ Δάφνις καὶ ἡ Χλόη κάματον πολὺν ἔσχον μέχρι νυκτὸς τὰς αἶγας καὶ τὰς οἶς συλλέγοντες: ὑπὸ γὰρ τοῦ δέρματος πτοηθεῖσαι καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν κυνῶν ὑλακτησάντων ταραχθεῖσαι αἱ μὲν εἰς πέτρας ἀνέδραμον, αἱ δὲ μέχρι τῆς θαλάττης αὐτῆς κατέδραμον. Καίτοιγε ἐπεπαίδευντο καὶ φωνῇ πείθεσθαι καὶ σύριγγι θέλγεσθαι καὶ χειρὸς πλαταγῇ συλλέγεσθαι: ἀλλὰ τότε πάντων αὐταῖς ὁ φόβος λήθην ἐνέβαλε. Καὶ μόλις ὥσπερ λαγὼς ἐκ τῶν ἰχνῶν εὑρίσκοντες εἰς τὰς ἐπαύλεις ἤγαγον. Ἐκείνης μόνης τῆς νυκτὸς ἐκοιμήθησαν βαθὺν ὕπνον καὶ τῆς ἐρωτικῆς λύπης φάρμακον τὸν κάματον ἔσχον. Αὖθις δὲ ἡμέρας ἐπελθούσης, πάλιν ἔπασχον παραπλήσια. Ἔχαιρον ἰδόντες, ἀπαλλαγέντες ἤλγουν: ἤθελόν τι, ἠγνόουν ὅ τι θέλουσι. Τοῦτο μόνον ᾔδεσαν ὅτι τὸν μὲν φίλημα, τὴν δὲ λουτρὸν ἀπώλεσεν.

  1.22 Dorcon, having been in such deadly peril, after he had made good his escape from the mouth of a dog (not, as the proverb goes, of a wolf), devoted his attention to his wounds. Daphnis and Chloe, however, found considerable difficulty in getting together their goats and sheep, which, alarmed by the sight of the wolf’s skin, and thrown into confusion by the barking of the dogs, had fled to the tops of the mountains or down to the seashore. Although they had been trained to obey their masters’ voice and to be soothed by the sound of the pipe, and to gather together when they merely clapped their hands, fear had caused them to forget everything; and they could only get them back to the fold with difficulty, after tracking them like hares. During that night alone they slept soundly, and weariness was a remedy for their amorous uneasiness: but, as soon as day came again, they felt the same passion as before. They were glad when they saw each other, and sorrowful when they parted: they suffered, they wanted something, but they did not know what they wanted. They only knew, the one that he had been undone by a kiss, the other that she had been destroyed by a bath.

  Ἐξέκαε δ̓ αὐτοὺς καὶ ἡ ὥρα τοῦ ἔτους. Ἦρος ἦν ἤδη τέλος καὶ θέρους ἀρχή, καὶ πάντα ἐν ἀκμῇ: δένδρα ἐν καρποῖς, πεδία ἐν ληίοις. Ἡδεῖα μὲν τεττίγων ἠχή, γλυκεῖα δὲ ὀπώρας ὀδμή, τερπνὴ δὲ ποιμνίων βληχή. Εἴκασεν ἄν τις καὶ τοὺς ποταμοὺς ᾄδειν ἠρέμα ῥέοντας καὶ τοὺς ἀνέμους συρίττειν ταῖς πίτυσιν ἐμπνέοντας καὶ τὰ μῆλα ἐρῶντα πίπτειν χαμαὶ καὶ τὸν ἥλιον φιλόκαλον ὄντα πάντας ἀποδύειν. Ὁ μὲν οὖν Δάφνις θαλπόμενος τούτοις ἅπασιν εἰς τοὺς ποταμοὺς ἐνέβαινε, καὶ ποτὲ μὲν ἐλούετο, ποτὲ δὲ τῶν ἰχθύων τοὺς ἐνδινεύοντας ἐθήρα: πολλάκις δὲ καὶ ἔπινεν, ὡς τὸ ἔνδοθεν καῦμα σβέσων. Ἡ δὲ Χλόη μετὰ τὸ ἀμέλξαι τὰς οἶς καὶ τῶν αἰγῶν τὰς πολλὰς ἐπὶ πολὺν μὲν χρόνον πράγματα εἶχε πηγνῦσα τὸ γάλα: δειναὶ γὰρ αἱ μυῖαι λυπῆσαι καὶ δακεῖν, εἰ διώκοιντο: τὸ δὲ ἐντεῦθεν ἀπολουσαμένη τὸ πρόσωπον πίτυος ἐστεφανοῦτο κλάδοις καὶ τῇ νεβρίδι ἐζώννυτο καὶ τὸν γαυλὸν ἀναπλήσασα οἴνου καὶ γάλακτος κοινὸν μετὰ τοῦ Δάφνιδος πότον εἶχε.

  1.23 In addition to this, the season of the year still further inflamed their passion. It was the end of spring and the commencement of summer: all Nature was in full vigour: the trees were full of fruit, the fields of corn. The chirp of the grasshopper was sweet to hear, the fruit sweet to smell, and the bleating of the sheep pleasant to the ear. The gently flowing rivers seemed to be singing a song: the winds, blowing softly through the pine branches, sounded like the notes of the pipe: even the apples seemed to fall to the ground smitten with love, stripped off by the sun that was enamoured of their beauty. Daphnis, heated by all these surroundings, plunged into the river, sometimes to bathe, at other times to snare the fish that sported in the eddies of the stream: and he often drank, as if he could thereby quench the fire that consumed him. Chloe, after having milked her sheep and most of Daphnis’s goats, was for a long time busied in curdling the milk: for the flies annoyed her terribly and stung her, when she endeavoured to drive them away. After this, she washed her face, and crowned with branches of pine, and girt with the skin of a fawn, filled a pail with wine and milk to share with Daphnis.

  Τῆς δὲ μεσημβρίας ἐπελθούσης ἐγίνετο ἤδη τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἅλωσις αὐτοῖς: ἡ μὲν γὰρ γυμνὸν ὁρῶσα τὸν Δάφνιν ἐς ἄθρουν ἐνέπιπτε τὸ κάλλος, καὶ ἐτήκετο μηδὲν αὐτοῦ μέρος μέμψασθαι δυναμένη: ὁ δὲ ἰδὼν ἐν νεβρίδι καὶ στεφάνῳ πίτυος ὀρέγουσαν τὸν γαυλὸν μίαν ᾤετο τῶν ἐκ τοῦ ἄντρου Νυμφῶν ὁρᾶν. Ὁ μὲν οὖν τὴν πίτυν ἀπὸ τῆς κεφαλῆς ἁρπάζων αὐτὸς ἐστεφανοῦτο, πρότερον φιλήσας τὸν στέφανον: ἡ δὲ τὴν ἐσθῆτα αὐτοῦ λουομένου καὶ γυμνωθέντος ἐνεδύετο, πρότερον καὶ αὐτὴ φιλήσασα. Ἤδη ποτὲ καὶ μήλοις ἀλλήλους ἔβαλον καὶ τὰς κεφαλὰς ἀλλήλων ἐκόσμησαν διακρίνοντες τὰς κόμας: καὶ ἡ μὲν εἴκασεν αὐτοῦ τὴν κόμην, ὅτι μέλαινα, μύρτοις, ὁ δὲ μήλῳ τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτῆς, ὅτι λευκὸν καὶ ἐνερευθὲς ἦν. Ἐδίδασκεν αὐτὴν καὶ συρίττειν: καὶ ἀρξαμένης ἐμπνεῖν ἁρπάζων τὴν σύριγγα τοῖς χείλεσιν αὐτὸς τοὺς καλάμους ἐπέτρεχε: κ�
�ὶ ἐδόκει μὲν διδάσκειν ἁμαρτάνουσαν, εὐπρεπῶς δὲ διὰ τῆς σύριγγος Χλόην κατεφίλει.

  1.24 When noon came on, they were more enamoured than ever. For Chloe, having seen Daphnis quite naked, was struck by the bloom of his beauty, and her heart melted with love, for his whole person was too perfect for criticism: while Daphnis, seeing Chloe with her fawn skin and garland of pine, holding out the milk-pail for him to drink, thought that he was gazing upon one of the Nymphs of the grotto. He snatched the garland from her head, kissed it, and placed it on his own: and Chloe took his clothes when he had stripped to bathe, kissed them, and in like manner put them on. Sometimes they pelted each other with apples, and parted and decked each other’s hair. Chloe declared that Daphnis’s hair, being dark, was like myrtle berries: while Daphnis compared Chloe’s face to an apple, because it was fair and ruddy. He also taught her to play on the pipe: and, when she began to blow, he snatched it away and ran over the reeds with his lips: and, while he thus pretended to show her where she was wrong, he speciously kissed the pipe in the places where her mouth had been.

  Συρίττοντος δὲ αὐτοῦ τὸ μεσημβρινὸν καὶ τῶν ποιμνίων σκιαζομένων ἔλαθεν ἡ Χλόη κατανυστάξασα. Φωράσας τοῦτο ὁ Δάφνις καὶ καταθέμενος τὴν σύριγγα πᾶσαν αὐτὴν ἔβλεπεν ἀπλήστως, οἷα μηδὲν αἰδούμενος, καὶ ἅμα ἠρέμα ὑπεφθέγγετο ‘οἷον καθεύδουσιν ὀφθαλμοί, οἷον δὲ ἀποπνεῖ τὸ στόμα. Οὐδὲ τὰ μῆλα τοιοῦτον, οὐδὲ αἱ ὄχναι. Ἀλλὰ φιλῆσαι μὲν δέδοικα: δάκνει τὸ φίλημα τὴν καρδίαν, καὶ ὥσπερ τὸ νέον μέλι μαίνεσθαι ποιεῖ: ὀκνῶ δὲ καὶ μὴ φιλήσας αὐτὴν ἀφυπνίσω. Ὤ λάλων τεττίγων, οὐκ ἐάσουσιν αὐτὴν καθεύδειν μέγα ἠχοῦντες. Ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ τράγοι τοῖς κέρασι παταγοῦσι μαχόμενοι. Ὤ λύκων ἀλωπέκων δειλοτέρων, οἳ τούτους οὐχ ἥρπασαν.’

  1.25 While he was piping in the noonday heat, and the flocks were resting in the shade, Chloe unwittingly fell asleep. When Daphnis perceived this, he put down his pipe, and gazed at her all over with greedy eyes, without any feeling of shame, and at the same time gently whispered to himself: “How lovely are her eyes in sleep! How sweet the perfume from her mouth, sweeter than that of apples or the hawthorn! Yet I dare not kiss it: her kiss pricks me to the heart, and maddens me like fresh honey. Besides, if I kiss her, I am afraid of waking her. O chattering grasshoppers! You will prevent her from sleeping, if you chirp so loudly! And on the other side, the he goats are butting each other with their horns: O wolves, more cowardly than foxes, why do you not carry them off?”

  Ἐν τοιούτοις ὄντος αὐτοῦ λόγοις τέττιξ φεύγων χελιδόνα θηρᾶσαι θέλουσαν κατέπεσεν εἰς τὸν κόλπον τῆς Χλόης: καὶ ἡ χελιδὼν ἑπομένη τὸν μὲν οὐκ ἠδυνήθη λαβεῖν, ταῖς δὲ πτέρυξιν ἐγγὺς διὰ τὴν δίωξιν γενομένη τῶν παρειῶν αὐτῆς ἥψατο. Ἡ δὲ οὐκ εἰδυῖα τὸ πραχθὲν μέγα βοήσασα τῶν ὕπνων ἐξέθορεν. Ἰδοῦσα δὲ καὶ τὴν χελιδόνα ἔτι πλησίον πετομένην καὶ τὸν Δάφνιν ἐπὶ τῷ δέει γελῶντα τοῦ φόβου μὲν ἐπαύσατο, τοὺς δὲ ὀφθαλμοὺς ἀπέματτεν ἔτι καθεύδειν θέλοντας. Καὶ ὁ τέττιξ ἐκ τῶν κόλπων ἐπήχησεν ὅμοιον ἱκέτῃ χάριν ὁμολογοῦντι τῆς σωτηρίας. Πάλιν οὖν ἡ Χλόη μέγα ἐβόησεν, ὁ δὲ Δάφνις ἐγέλασε: καὶ προφάσεως λαβόμενος καθῆκεν αὐτῆς εἰς τὰ στέρνα τὰς χεῖρας καὶ ἐξάγει τὸν βέλτιστον τέττιγα, μηδὲ ἐν τῇ δεξιᾷ σιωπῶντα. Ἡ δὲ ἥδετο ἰδοῦσα καὶ ἐφίλησε λαβοῦσα καὶ αὖθις ἐνέβαλε τῷ κόλπῳ λαλοῦντα.

  1.26 While he was thus talking to himself, a grasshopper, pursued by a swallow, fell into Chloe’s bosom: the swallow followed, but could not catch it: but, being unable to check its flight, touched Chloe’s cheek with its wing. Not knowing what the matter was, she cried out loudly, and woke up with a start: but, when she saw the swallow flying close to her, and Daphnis laughing at her alarm, she was reassured, and rubbed her still drowsy eyes. The grasshopper, as if in gratitude for its safety, chirped its thanks from her bosom. Then Chloe cried out again, and Daphnis laughed: and, seizing the opportunity, thrust his hand into her breast, and pulled out the grateful insect, which continued its song, even while held a prisoner in his hand. Chloe was delighted, and having kissed the insect, took it and put it, still chirping, into her bosom.

  Ἔτερψεν αὐτοὺς τότε φάττα βουκολικὸν ἐκ τῆς ὕλης φθεγξαμένη. Καὶ τῆς Χλόης ζητούσης μαθεῖν ὅ τι λέγει, διδάσκει αὐτὴν ὁ Δάφνις μυθολογῶν τὰ θρυλούμενα. ‘Ἦν οὕτω, παρθένε, παρθένος καλὴ καὶ ἔνεμε βοῦς πολλὰς ἐν ὕλῃ: ἦν δὲ ἄρα καὶ ᾠδικὴ καὶ ἐτέρποντο αἱ βόες αὐτῆς τῇ μουσικῇ, καὶ ἔνεμεν οὔτε καλαύροπος πληγῇ οὔτε κέντρου προσβολῇ, ἀλλὰ καθίσασα ὑπὸ πίτυν καὶ στεφανωσαμένη πίτυϊ ᾖδε Πᾶνα καὶ τὴν Πίτυν, καὶ αἱ βόες τῇ φωνῇ παρέμενον. Παῖς οὐ μακρὰν νέμων βοῦς, καὶ αὐτὸς καλὸς καὶ ᾠδικὸς ὡς ἡ παρθένος, φιλονεικήσας πρὸς τὴν μελῳδίαν, μείζονα ὡς ἀνήρ, ἡδίονα ὡς παῖς φωνὴν ἀντεπεδείξατο, καὶ τῶν βοῶν ὀκτὼ τὰς ἀρίστας ἐς τὴν ἰδίαν ἀγέλην θέλξας ἀπεβουκόλησεν. Ἄχθεται ἡ παρθένος τῇ βλάβῃ τῆς ἀγέλης, τῇ ἥττῃ τῆς ᾠδῆς, καὶ εὔχεται τοῖς θεοῖς ὄρνις γενέσθαι πρὶν οἴκαδε ἀφικέσθαι. Πείθονται οἱ θεοὶ καὶ ποιοῦσι τήνδε τὴν ὄρνιν, ὄρειον ὡς παρθένον, μουσικὴν ὡς ἐκείνην. Καὶ ἔτι νῦν ᾄδουσα μηνύει τὴν συμφοράν, ὅτι βοῦς ζητεῖ πεπλανημένας.’

  1.27 Another time, they were listening with delight to the cooing of a wood pigeon. When Chloe asked what was the meaning of its song, Daphnis told her the popular story: “Once upon a time, dear maiden, there was a maiden, beautiful and blooming as you. She tended cattle and sang beautifully: her cows were so enchanted by the music of her voice, that she never needed to strike them with her crook or to touch them with her goad: but, seated beneath a pine-tree, her head crowned with a garland, she sang of Pan and Pinus, and the cows stood near, enchanted by her song. There was a young man who tended his flocks hard by, beautiful and a good singer himself, as she was, who entered into a rivalry of song with her: his voice was more powerful, since he was a man, and yet gentle, since he was but a youth. He sang so sweetly that he charmed eight of her best cows and enticed them over to his own herd, and drove them away. The maiden, grieved at the loss of her cattle, and at having been vanquished in singing, begged the Gods to transform her into a bird before she returned home. The Gods listened to her prayer, and transformed her into a mountain bird, which loves to sing as she did. Even now it tells in plaintive tones of her misadventure, and how that she is still seeking the cows that strayed away.

  Τοιάσδε τέρψεις αὐτοῖς τὸ θέρος παρεῖχ
ε. Μετοπώρου δὲ ἀκμάζοντος καὶ τοῦ βότρυος Τύριοι λῃσταὶ Καρικὴν ἔχοντες ἡμιολίαν, ὡς ἂν μὴ δοκοῖεν βάρβαροι, προσέσχον τοῖς ἀγροῖς, καὶ ἐκβάντες σὺν μαχαίραις καὶ ἡμιθωρακίοις κατέσυρον πάντα τὰ εἰς χεῖρας ἐλθόντα, οἶνον ἀνθοσμίαν, πυρὸν ἄφθονον, μέλι ἐν κηρίοις: ἤλασάν τινας καὶ βοῦς ἐκ τῆς Δόρκωνος ἀγέλης. Λαμβάνουσι καὶ τὸν Δάφνιν ἀλύοντα παρὰ τὴν θάλατταν: ἡ γὰρ Χλόη βραδύτερον ὡς κόρη τὰ πρόβατα ἐξῆγε τοῦ Δρύαντος, φόβῳ τῶν ἀγερώχων ποιμένων. Ἰδόντες δὲ μειράκιον μέγα καὶ καλὸν καὶ κρεῖττον τῆς ἐξ ἀγρῶν ἁρπαγῆς, μηκέτι μηδὲν μήτε ἐς τὰς αἶγας μήτε ἐς τοὺς ἄλλους ἀγροὺς περιεργασάμενοι κατῆγον αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τὴν ναῦν κλάοντα καὶ ἠπορημένον καὶ μέγα Χλόην καλοῦντα. Καὶ οἱ μὲν τὸ πεῖσμα ἄρτι ἀπολύσαντες καὶ τὰς κώπας ταῖς χερσὶν ἐμβαλόντες ἀνέπλεον εἰς τὸ πέλαγος: Χλόη δὲ κατήλαυνε τὸ ποίμνιον, σύριγγα καινὴν τῷ Δάφνιδι δῶρον κομίζουσα. Ἰδοῦσα δὲ τὰς αἶγας τεταραγμένας καὶ ἀκούσασα τοῦ Δάφνιδος ἀεὶ μεῖζον αὐτὴν βοῶντος, προβάτων μὲν ἀμελεῖ καὶ τὴν σύριγγα ῥίπτει, δρόμῳ δὲ πρὸς τὸν Δόρκωνα παραγίνεται δεησομένη βοηθεῖν