Complete Works of Achilles Tatius

by Achilles Tatius

  [1] Ὀλίγας δὲ ἡμέρας διαλιπὼν πρὸς τὴν Λευκίππην διελεγόμην ‘μέχρι τίνος ἐπὶ τῶν φιλημάτων ἱστάμεθα, φιλτάτη; προσθῶμεν ἤδη τι καὶ ἐρωτικώτερον. Φέρε ἀνάγκην ἀλλήλοις ἐπιθῶμεν πίστεως. Ἂν γὰρ ἡμᾶς Ἀφροδίτη μυσταγωγήσῃ, οὐ μή τις ἄλλος [2] κρείττων γένηται τῆς θεοῦ.’ Ταῦτα πολλάκις κατεπᾴδων ἐπεπείκειν τὴν κόρην ὑποδέξασθαί με νυκτὸς τῷ θαλάμῳ, τῆς Κλειοῦς συνεργούσης, ἥτις ἦν αὐτῇ θαλαμηπόλος. Εἶχε δὲ ὁ θάλαμος αὐτῆς οὕτως. [3] Χωρίον ἦν μέγα τέτταρα οἰκήματα ἔχον, δύο μὲν ἐπὶ δεξιά, δύο δ̓ ἐπὶ θἄτερα: μέσος δὲ διεῖργε στενωπὸς τὰ οἰκήματα: θύρα δὲ ἐν ἀρχῇ τοῦ στενωποῦ μία ἐπέκειτο. [4] Ταύτην εἶχον τὴν καταγωγὴν αἱ γυναῖκες: καὶ τὰ μὲν ἐνδοτέρω τῶν οἰκημάτων ἥ τε παρθένος καὶ ἡ μήτηρ αὐτῆς διειλήχεσαν, ἑκάτερα τὰ ἀντικρύ, τὰ δὲ ἔξω δύο τὰ πρὸς τὴν εἴσοδον τὸ μὲν ἡ Κλειὼ τὸ κατὰ τὴν παρθένον, τὸ δὲ ταμιεῖον ἦν. [5] Κατακοιμίζουσα δὲ ἀεὶ τὴν Λευκίππην ἡ μήτηρ ἔκλειεν ἔνδοθεν τὴν ἐπὶ τοῦ στενωποῦ θύραν: ἔξωθεν δέ τις ἕτερος ἐπέκλειε καὶ τὰς κλεῖς ἔβαλλε διὰ τῆς ὀπῆς: ἡ δὲ λαβοῦσα ἐφύλαττε καὶ περὶ τὴν ἕω καλέσασα τὸν εἰς τοῦτο ἐπιτεταγμένον διέβαλλε πάλιν τὰς κλεῖς, ὅπως ἀνοίξειε. [6] Ταύταις οὖν ἴσας μηχανησάμενος ὁ Σάτυρος γενέσθαι, τὴν ἄνοιξιν πειρᾶται καὶ ὡς εὗρε δυνατήν, τὴν Κλειὼ ἐπεπείκει τῆς κόρης συνειδυίας μηδὲν ἀντιπρᾶξαι τῇ τέχνῃ. Ταῦτα ἦν τὰ συγκείμενα.

  19. After a few days bad elapsed, I said to Leucippe: “How long, my dearest, are we to stop at kisses, which are nothing but a prelude? Let us add to them something with real love in it. Let us fetter one another with an indissoluble bond; for if but once Aphrodite initiate us into her mysteries, no other god will ever prove stronger than she.” By constantly reiterating my request, I had persuaded the maiden to receive me one night in her chamber, with the connivance of Clio, who was her chambermaid. This was how her chamber lay: there was a large wing of the house divided into four rooms, two on the right and two on the left, separated by a narrow passage down the middle; there was a single door at the beginning of the passage, and this was the entrance the women used. The two inner rooms opposite one another belonged to the maiden and her mother; as for the two outer rooms nearer the entrance, the one next to Leucippe’s was occupied by Clio, and the other was used as the steward’s store. Her mother was in the habit, when she put Leucippe to bed, of locking the passage door from the inside, and somebody else would also lock it from the outside and pass the keys through the hole; she used to take and keep them, and in the morning, calling the servant whose business this was, she would pass the keys back again for him to open the door. Satyrus obtained a duplicate set of these keys and experimented with unlocking the door; finding that this was practicable, he persuaded Clio, with the maiden’s consent, to raise no objections to our plan. Such, then, were the arrangements we had made.

  [1] Ἦν δέ τις αὐτῶν οἰκέτης πολυπράγμων καὶ λάλος καὶ λίχνος καὶ πᾶν ὅ τι ἂν εἴποι τις, ὄνομα Κώνωψ. Οὗτός μοι ἐδόκει πόρρωθεν ἐπιτηρεῖν τὰ πραττόμενα ἡμῖν: μάλιστα δ̓, ὅπερ ἦν, ὑποπτεύσας μή τι νύκτωρ ἡμῖν πραχθῇ, διενυκτέρευε μέχρι πόρρω τῆς ἑσπέρας, ἀναπετάσας τοῦ δωματίου τὰς θύρας, [2] ὥστε ἔργον ἦν αὐτὸν λαθεῖν. Ὁ οὖν Σάτυρος βουλόμενος αὐτὸν εἰς φιλίαν ἀγαγεῖν, προσέπαιζε πολλάκις καὶ κώνωπα ἐκάλει καὶ ἔσκωπτε τοὔνομα σὺν γέλωτι. Καὶ οὗτος εἰδὼς τοῦ Σατύρου τὴν τέχνην προσεποιεῖτο μὲν ἀντιπαίζειν καὶ αὐτός, ἐνετίθει δὲ τῇ παιδιᾷ τῆς γνώμης τὸ ἄσπονδον. [3] Λέγει δὴ πρὸς αὐτὸν ‘ἐπειδὴ καταμωκᾷ μου καὶ τοὔνομα, φέρε σοι μῦθον ἀπὸ κώνωπος εἴπω.’

  20. There was one of their servants called Conops — a meddlesome, talkative, greedy rascal, deserving any bad name you liked to call him. I noticed that he seemed to be watching; from a distance all that we were about; and being particularly suspicious that we were intending (as was indeed the case) to make some attempt by night, he would constantly sit up until very late, leaving open the doors of his room, so that it was a difficult business to escape him. Satyrus, wishing to conciliate him, used often to joke with him, calling him the Conops or Gnat, and good-humouredly punned upon his name; he saw through the device, and while he pretended to make jokes in return, he shewed in his humour his cross-grained and intractable nature. “Since,” said he, “you even mock at my name, allow me to relate to you a fable derived from the gnat.

  [1] ‘ὁ λέων κατεμέμφετο τὸν Προμηθέα πολλάκις ὅτι μέγαν μὲν αὐτὸν ἔπλασε καὶ καλὸν καὶ τὴν μὲν γένυν ὥπλισε τοῖς ὀδοῦσι, τοὺς δὲ πόδας ἐκράτυνε τοῖς ὄνυξιν, ἐποίησέ τε τῶν ἄλλων θηρίων δυνατώτερον. ‘Ὁ δὲ τοιοῦτος’ ἔφασκε ‘τὸν ἀλεκτρυόνα φοβοῦμαι.’ [2] Καὶ ὁ Προμηθεὺς ἐπιστὰς ἔφη ‘τί με μάτην αἰτιᾷ; τὰ μὲν γὰρ ἐμὰ πάντα ἔχεις, ὅσα πλάττειν ἠδυνάμην, ἡ δὲ σὴ ψυχὴ πρὸς τοῦτο μόνον μαλακίζεται.’ Ἔκλαεν οὖν ἑαυτὸν ὁ λέων καὶ τῆς δειλίας κατεμέμφετο καὶ τέλος ἀποθανεῖν ἤθελεν. [3] Οὕτω δὲ γνώμης ἔχων ἐλέφαντι περιτυγχάνει καὶ προσαγορεύσας εἱστήκει διαλεγόμενος. Καὶ ὁρῶν διὰ παντὸς τὰ ὦτα κινοῦντα ‘τί πάσχεις;’ ἔφη, ‘καὶ τί [4] δήποτε οὐδὲ μικρὸν ἀτρεμεῖ σου τὸ οὖς;’ Καὶ ὁ ἐλέφας κατὰ τύχην παραπτάντος αὐτὸν κώνωπος ‘ὁρᾷς’ ἔφη ‘τουτὶ τὸ βραχὺ τὸ βομβοῦν; ἢν εἰσδύῃ με τῇ τῆς ἀκοῆς ὁδῷ, τέθνηκα.’ Καὶ ὁ λέων ‘τί οὖν’ ἔφη ‘ἔτι ἀποθνήσκειν με δεῖ τοσοῦτον ὄντα καὶ ἐλέφαντος εὐτυχέστερον, ὅσον κρείττων κώνωπος ἀλεκτρυών;’ Ὁρᾷς ὅσον ἰσχύος ὁ κώνωψ ἔχει, ὡς καὶ ἐλέφαντα φοβεῖν.

  ‘

  [5] συνεὶς οὖν ὁ Σάτυρος τὸ ὕπουλον αὐτοῦ τῶν λόγων, ἠρέμα μειδιῶν ‘ἄκουσον κἀμοῦ τινα λόγον’ εἶπεν ‘ἀπὸ κώνωπος καὶ λέοντος, ὃν ἀκήκοά τινος τῶν φιλοσόφων: χαρίζομαι δέ σοι τοῦ μύθου τὸν ἐλέφαντα.

  ‘

  21. “The lion often used to complain to Prometheus that he had made him great and handsome, that he had armed his jaw with teeth and made his feet strong with claws, and made him stronger than all the other beasts: ‘And yet,’ he would say,

  ‘powerful as I am, I am terrified of
a cock.’ ‘Why thus blame me in vain?’ said Prometheus, his attention thus attracted to the matter: ‘you have everything that I could give you at the moment of creation: your spirit is feeble in this one respect.’ The lion wept much at his evil case and cursed his cowardice and at last determined to slay himself: but while he was in this frame of mind., he happened to meet the elephant, and after hailing him, stopped gossiping with him. He noticed that his ears kept moving the whole time, and asked him: ‘What is the matter with you? Why is it that your ear never keeps still even for a moment?’ It so chanced that at that instant a gnat was flying about him, and the elephant replied: ‘Do you see this tiny little buzzing creature? If once it were to get into the channel through which I hear, it would be the death of me.” Well,’ said the lion, ‘there is surely no reason for me to die after all, seeing that I am big enough and as much better off than the elephant, as the cock is a nobler creature than the gnat.’ You see then how powerful is the gnat, so that even the elephant is afraid of him.” Satyrus understood the innuendo that lay beneath this story, and, with a slight smile, “Listen,” said he, “to a fable of mine as well, taken from the gnat and the lion, which I once heard from a learned man: and I will make you a present of the elephant of your story.

  [1] ‘λέγει τοίνυν κώνωψ ἀλαζών ποτε πρὸς τὸν λέοντα ‘εἶτα κἀμοῦ βασιλεύειν νομίζεις ὡς τῶν ἄλλων θηρίων; ἀλλ̓ οὔτ̓ ἐμοῦ καλλίων οὔτε ἀλκιμώτερος ἔφυς οὔτε μείζων. Ἐπεὶ τίς σοι πρῶτόν ἐστιν ἀλκή; [2] ἀμύσσεις τοῖς ὄνυξι καὶ δάκνεις τοῖς ὀδοῦσι. Ταῦτα γὰρ οὐ ποιεῖ μαχομένη γυνή; ποῖον δὲ μέγεθος ἢ κάλλος σε κοσμεῖ; στέρνον πλατύ, ὦμοι παχεῖς καὶ πολλὴ περὶ τὸν αὐχένα κόμη. Τὴν κατόπιν οὖν αἰσχύνην οὐχ ὁρᾷς; Ἐμοὶ δὲ μέγεθος μὲν ὁ ἀὴρ ὅλος, ὅσον μου καταλαμβάνει τὸ πτερόν, κάλλος δὲ αἱ τῶν λειμώνων κόμαι: αἱ μὲν γάρ εἰσιν ὥσπερ ἐσθῆτες, [3] ἃς ὅταν θέλω παῦσαι τὴν πτῆσιν ἐνδύομαι. Τὴν δὲ ἀνδρείαν μου μὴ καὶ γελοῖον ᾖ καταλέγειν: ὄργανον γὰρ ὅλος εἰμὶ πολέμου. Μετὰ μὲν σάλπιγγος καὶ βέλους παρατάττομαι, σάλπιγξ δέ μοι καὶ βέλος τὸ στόμα, ὥστε εἰμὶ καὶ αὐλητὴς καὶ τοξότης: ἐμαυτοῦ δὲ οἰστὸς καὶ τόξον γίνομαι: τοξεύει γάρ με διαέριον τὸ πτερόν, ἐμπεσὼν δὲ ὡς ἀπὸ βέλους ποιῶ τὸ τραῦμα, ὁ δὲ παταχθεὶς ἐξαίφνης βοᾷ καὶ τὸν τετρωκότα ζητεῖ: ἐγὼ δὲ παρὼν οὐ πάρειμι, ὁμοῦ δὲ καὶ φεύγω καὶ μένω καὶ περιιππεύω τὸν ἄνθρωπον τῷ πτερῷ, γελῶ δὲ αὐτὸν βλέπων περὶ τοῖς τραύμασιν ὀρχούμενον. [4] Ἀλλὰ τί δεῖ λόγων; ἀρχώμεθα μάχης.’ Καὶ ἅμα λέγων ἐμπίπτει τῷ λέοντι καὶ εἰς τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἐμπηδᾷ καὶ εἴ τι ἄλλο ἄτριχον τῶν προσώπων, περιιπτάμενος ἅμα καὶ τῷ βόμβῳ καταυλῶν. Ὁ δὲ λέων ἠγρίαινέ τε καὶ μετεστρέφετο πάντη καὶ τὸν ἀέρα περιέχασκεν, ὁ δὲ κώνωψ ταύτῃ πλέον τὴν ὀργὴν ἐτίθετο παιδιὰν καὶ ἐπ̓ αὐτοῖς ἐτίτρωσκε τοῖς χείλεσιν. [5] Καὶ ὁ μὲν ἔκλινεν εἰς τὸ λυποῦν μέρος, ἀνακάμπτων ἔνθα τοῦ τραύματος ἡ πληγή, ὁ δὲ ὥσπερ παλαιστὴς τὸ σῶμα σκευάζων εἰς τὴν συμπλοκὴν ἀπέρρει τῶν τοῦ λέοντος ὀδόντων, αὐτὴν μέσην διαπτὰς κλειομένην τὴν γένυν. [6] Οἱ δὲ ὀδόντες κενοὶ τῆς θήρας περὶ ἑαυτοὺς ἐκροτάλιζον. Ἤδη τοίνυν ὁ λέων ἐκεκμήκει σκιαμαχῶν πρὸς τὸν ἀέρα τοῖς ὀδοῦσι καὶ εἱστήκει παρειμένος ὀργῇ: ὁ δὲ κώνωψ περιιπτάμενος αὐτοῦ τὴν κόμην ἐπηύλει μέλος ἐπινίκιον. [7] Μακρότερον δὲ ποιούμενος τῆς πτήσεως τὸν κύκλον ὑπὸ περιττῆς ἀπειροκαλίας ἀράχνου λανθάνει νήμασιν ἐμπλακείς, καὶ τὸν ἀράχνην οὐκ ἔλαθεν ἐμπεσών. Ὡς δ̓ οὐκέτι εἶχε φυγεῖν, ἀδημονῶν εἶπεν ‘ὢ τῆς ἀνοίας: προὐκαλούμην γὰρ ἐγὼ λέοντα, ὀλίγος δέ με ἤγρευσεν ἀράχνου χιτών.’

  ‘

  ταῦτα εἰπὼν ‘ὥρα τοίνυν’ ἔφη ‘καὶ σοὶ τοὺς ἀράχνας φοβεῖσθαι,’ καὶ ἅμα ἐγέλασε.

  22. “The rascally braggart gnat said one day to the lion: ‘I suppose that you think that you are king over me as over not better looks than I, or more courage or even greatness. What, in the first place, is your courage? You scratch with your claws and bite with your teeth: and so does any woman when she fights. Then what about your size or your looks of which you are so proud? You have a broad chest, muscular shoulders and plenty of hair about your neck: but you cannot see what a wretched sight you are from behind. (I do not feel quite sure of the reason for this taunt — whether the lion was supposed to be particularly unsightly in his hinder parts, quia pudenda ejus non satis tegebat cauda, or simply that the rest of the body, after the fine maned front, seems to be a poor and scraggy thing.) My greatness is that of the whole air which is traversed by my wings, and my beauty is the flowers of the meadows, which are as it were my garments which I put on when I am tired of flying. I fear it will make you laugh to hear all the catalogue of my valour: I am wholly an instrument of war; I am ready for the fray at the sound of the trumpet, and my mouth being at once trumpet and weapon I am both bandsman and archer. I am at once my own arrow and my own bow; my wings shoot me through the air, and as I pounce I make a wound like an arrow: the person who is struck suddenly cries out and looks for him who dealt the wound. I am there and not there: at the same moment I retire and advance: I use my wings as cavalry use their horses to circle round the man I am attacking; and I laugh at him when I see him dancing with the pain of my wounds. But what need of words? Let us begin the battle.’ So speaking, he fell upon the lion, alighting upon his eyes and flying about all the part of his face that was unprotected by hair, at the same time piping with his drone. The lion began to be furious, jumping round in every direction and making empty bites at the air: then the gnat all the more made sport of his anger, and wounded him actually on the lips. The lion turned towards the direction in which he was hurt, bending over to where he felt the blow of the wound, but the gnat adapted his body like a wrestler, avoided at the encounter the snap of the lion’s teeth, and flew clean through the middle of his jaw as it closed, so that his teeth clashed idly against one another. By this time the lion was tired out with fighting vainly against the air with his teeth, and stood quite worn out with his own passion, while the gnat hovered round his mane, chanting a song of victory: but as he took a wider sweep of flight in his unmannerly exultation, he became entangled unawares in the meshes of a spider’s web, though the spider was not at all unaware of his arrival. Now unable to escape, he began to cry in despair: ‘Fool that I was: I challenged the lion, while a paltry spider’s web has caught me!’” Thus did Satyrus speak: and, “Now,” said he, with a smile, “you had better beware of spiders.”

  [1] καὶ ὀλίγας διαλιπὼν ἡμέρας, εἰδὼς αὐτὸν γαστρὸς ἡττώμενον, φάρμακον πριάμενος �
��πνου βαθέος ἐφ̓ ἑστίασιν αὐτὸν ἐκάλεσεν. Ὁ δὲ ὑπώπτευε μέν τινα μηχανὴν καὶ ὤκνει τὸ πρῶτον: ὡς δὲ ἡ βελτίστη γαστὴρ κατηνάγκασε, πείθεται. [2] Ἐπεὶ δὲ ἧκε πρὸς τὸν Σάτυρον εἶτα δειπνήσας ἔμελλεν ἀπιέναι, ἐγχεῖ τοῦ φαρμάκου κατὰ τῆς τελευταίας κύλικος ὁ Σάτυρος αὐτῷ: καὶ ὁ μὲν ἔπιε καὶ μικρὸν διαλιπών, ὅσον εἰς τὸ δωμάτιον αὑτοῦ φθάσαι, καταπεσὼν ἔκειτο, τὸν ὕπνον καθεύδων τοῦ φαρμάκου. [3] Ὁ δὲ Σάτυρος εἰστρέχει πρός με καὶ λέγει ‘κεῖταί σοι καθεύδων ὁ Κύκλωψ: σὺ δὲ ὅπως Ὀδυσσεὺς ἀγαθὸς γένῃ.’ Καὶ ἅμα ἔλεγε καὶ ἥκομεν ἐπὶ τὰς θύρας τῆς ἐρωμένης, καὶ ὁ μὲν ὑπελείπετο, ἐγὼ δὲ εἰσῄειν, ὑποδεχομένης με τῆς Κλειοῦς ἀψοφητί, τρέμων τρόμον διπλοῦν, χαρᾶς ἅμα καὶ φόβου. [4] Ὁ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ κινδύνου φόβος ἐθορύβει τὰς τῆς ψυχῆς ἐλπίδας, ἡ δὲ ἐλπὶς τοῦ τυχεῖν ἐπεκάλυπτεν ἡδονῇ τὸν φόβον: οὕτω καὶ τὸ ἐλπίζον ἐφοβεῖτό μου καὶ ἔχαιρε τὸ λυπούμενον. Ἄρτι δέ μου παρελθόντος εἴσω τοῦ θαλάμου τῆς παιδός, γίνεταί τι τοιοῦτο περὶ τὴν τῆς κόρης μητέρα: ἔτυχε γὰρ ὄνειρος αὐτὴν ταράξας. [5] Ἐδόκει τινὰ λῃστὴν μάχαιραν ἔχοντα γυμνὴν ἄγειν ἁρπασάμενον αὐτῆς τὴν θυγατέρα καὶ καταθέμενον ὑπτίαν, μέσην ἀνατέμνειν τῇ μαχαίρᾳ τὴν γαστέρα κάτωθεν ἀρξάμενον ἀπὸ τῆς αἰδοῦς. Ταραχθεῖσα οὖν ὑπὸ δείματος ὡς εἶχεν ἀναπηδᾷ καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν τῆς θυγατρὸς θάλαμον τρέχει （ἐγγὺς γὰρ ἦν） ἄρτι μου κατακλιθέντος. [6] Ἐγὼ μὲν δὴ τὸν ψόφον ἀκούσας ἀνοιγομένων τῶν θυρῶν εὐθὺς ἀνεπήδησα, ἡ δὲ ἐπὶ τὴν κλίνην παρῆν. Συνεὶς οὖν τὸ κακὸν ἐξάλλομαι καὶ διὰ τῶν θυρῶν ἵεμαι δρόμῳ, καὶ ὁ Σάτυρος ὑποδέχεται τρέμοντα καὶ τεταραγμένον: εἶτα ἐφεύγομεν διὰ τοῦ σκότους καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ δωμάτιον ἑαυτῶν ἤλθομεν.