26. I still kept silent, my head bowed to the ground, and after a little while she went on in changed mood: “What I have just, said, my dearest, has been the utterance of anger and grief; what I am now going to say comes from the prompting of love. Though I be angry, yet I burn; though I be insulted and despised, still I love. Come to terms now and pity me; no longer do I ask for length of days and a long life’s wedded love, which I was unhappy enough to dream of, in your company. Now one embrace will be enough for me. I ask but for a little medicine for my long disease; quench but for a moment, the fire with which I burn. If I raged against you without restraint, forgive me, my dear; an unhappy love becomes actually mad. I know that I am lost to all sense of shame — but I feel no shame in speaking openly of Love’s mysteries: I speak to one who is already an adept in them. You know what I suffer; other men have never seen that god’s darts, and none can clearly discern the shots of his bow, save that lovers alone recognize the wounds suffered by their kind. I still have this day, and this day only, and I claim the fulfilment of your promise. Remember Isis, respect the oaths you swore before her altar; if you had been willing to be my lover, as there you swore, I would have recked nought of ten thousand Thersanders. If, now you have found Leueippe, marriage with another woman is no longer possible for you, I willingly grant you even this. I know I am beaten; I ask for nothing more than I am able to obtain. All sorts of miracles happen to my hurt: even the dead come to life. Cruel sea, to let me sail safely over thee, and then, after bringing me safe home, to work my deeper destruction by twice giving up thy dead. It was enough for Leucippe to be alive for Clitophon to desist from his grief; and now here is that savage, Thersander, with us. You have been beaten, Clitophon, before my eyes, and I was unhappy enough not to be able to help you. Did blows rain upon that face, ye gods? Surely Thersander must have been blind. Now I beseech you, my lord Clitophon — you are the lord of my heart — surrender yourself to me now for the first and last time: the few short moments will be to me like many days. If you agree to this, may you never lose your Leucippe, may she never even falsely (As when she was first apparently ripped up by the buccaneers and afterwards apparently decapitated by the pirates.) seem to die again. Do not despise my love: through it all your great happiness has come. It has given you back Leucippe; for if I had never fallen in love with you, if I had not brought you hither, Leucippe would still have been dead as far as you are concerned. Yes, Clitophon, there are such things as the gifts of Fortune! When a man finds a treasure, he always honours the place of its discovery; he puts up an altar, he brings an offering for sacrifice, he puts a garland upon the ground; you have found with me the treasure of love, and do you do nothing to requite the good it has brought you? Imagine that Love is speaking thus to you through me: ‘Grant this favour to me, Clitophon, who will lead thee into my mysteries: do not depart and leave Melitte without initiation; her fire too is from me.’ Then listen how I have taken care for all that concerns you. Soon shall you be loosed from these bonds, however little Thersander likes it, and you shall find a place of refuge for as long as you desire with a foster brother of mine. There in the morning wait for Leucippe to come to you; she said that she was going to spend the night in the country looking for herbs, in order to cull them by moonlight. (The moon was almost a necessity for conjuring of this kind (Theocritus ii. 10), and herbs plucked by its light far more efficacious (Horace, Sat. I. viii. 21). — In modern magic herbs gathered at night on St. John’s Eve are very powerful. See also note (1) on p. 289.)That was how she tricked me: for I asked her, thinking her a woman from Thessaly, for a philtre to be used upon you. What else could I do after all my failures but have recourse to herbs and magical drugs? That is the only resort for hopeless lovers. As for Thersander (I tell you this to assure you on this point too) he flung away from me out of the house in a rage, and has hurried to visit one of his friends; I cannot but think that some god has sent him away from here in order that I may be successful in gaining from you this last boon. Then do you give yourself to me
[1] Ταῦτα φιλοσοφήσασα （διδάσκει γὰρ ὁ Ἔρως καὶ λόγους） ἔλυε τὰ δεσμὰ καὶ τὰς χεῖρας κατεφίλει καὶ τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς καὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ προσέφερε καὶ εἶπεν ‘ὁρᾷς πῶς πηδᾷ καὶ πάλλει πυκνὸν παλμὸν ἀγωνίας γέμοντα καὶ ἐλπίδος ‘γένοιτο δὲ καὶ ἡδονῆς’ καὶ [2] ἔοικεν ἱκετεύειν σε τῷ πηδήματι.’ Ὡς οὖν με ἔλυσε καὶ περιέβαλε κλάουσα, ἔπαθόν τι ἀνθρώπινον, καὶ ἀληθῶς ἐφοβήθην τὸν Ἔρωτα μή μοι γένηται μήνιμα ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ἄλλως ὅτι Λευκίππην ἀπειλήφειν, καὶ ὅτι μετὰ ταῦτα τῆς Μελίτης ἀπαλλάττεσθαι ἔμελλον, καὶ ὅτι οὐδὲ γάμος ἔτι τὸ πραττόμενον ἦν, [3] ἀλλὰ φάρμακον ὥσπερ ψυχῆς νοσούσης. Περιβαλούσης οὖν ἠνειχόμην καὶ περιπλεκομένης πρὸς τὰς περιπλοκὰς οὐκ ἀντέλεγον: καὶ ἐγένετο ὅσα ὁ Ἔρως ἤθελεν οὔτε στρωμνῆς ἡμῶν δεηθέντων οὔτε ἄλλου τινὸς τῶν εἰς παρασκευὴν ἀφροδισίων. [4] Αὐτουργὸς γὰρ ὁ Ἔρως καὶ αὐτοσχέδιος σοφιστὴς καὶ πάντα τόπον αὑτῷ τιθέμενος μυστήριον. Τὸ δ̓ ἀπερίεργον εἰς Ἀφροδίτην ἥδιον μᾶλλον τοῦ πολυπράγμονος: αὐτοφυῆ γὰρ ἔχει τὴν ἡδονήν.
27. After these subtle arguments — Love is a fine master of rhetoric — she loosed my bonds and kissed my hands, and placed them, first on her eyes and then upon her heart, (Lieb Liebchen, leg’s Handchen aufs Herze mein; Ach, horst du, wie’s pochet im Kammerlein? HEINE.) saying: “You see how it leaps and its flutterings betoken anguish and hope — soon may they betoken pleasure — and seems by that very leaping to cry your mercy.” As she loosed my fetters and threw her arms about me, now all in tears, I felt the claims of humanity too strong for me, and I was really afraid that the god of love would visit his wrath upon me; and besides I felt that I had regained Leucippe, and was in the near future about to be rid of Melitte, and that anything that might take place could not possibly be regarded as a marriage, but only as medicine to an aching heart. I made no attempt therefore to escape from her encircling arms, and when she embraced me closer I did not resist her embraces, and soon all happened as Love would have it; nor did we feel at all the lack of a due couch or of any of the other accessories of pleasure. Love needs no teaching other than his own, and is an admirable improviser; he can make any place a proper spot for the celebration of his mysteries. And as regards such enjoyment, that which has not been too carefully prepared is better far than the meticulously elaborated; it has in itself its own genuine and natural pleasure.
BOOK VI.
[1] Ἐπεὶ οὖν τὴν Μελίτην ἰασάμην, λέγω πρὸς αὐτὴν ‘ἀλλ̓ ὅπως μοι τῆς φυγῆς παράσχῃς τὴν ἀσφάλειαν καὶ τἆλλα ὅσα ὑπέσχου περὶ Λευκίππης.’ ‘Μὴ φροντίσῃς’ εἶπε ‘τοῦ γε κατ̓ ἐκείνην μέρους, ἀλλ̓ ἤδη νόμιζε Λευκίππην ἔχειν: σὺ δὲ ἔνδυθι τὴν ἐσθῆτα τὴν ἐμὴν καὶ κλέπτε τὸ πρόσωπον τῷ πέπλῳ. [2] Ἡγήσεται δέ σοι τῆς ἐπὶ τὰς θύρας ὁδοῦ Μελανθώ, περιμένει δέ σε καὶ νεανίσκος ἐπ̓ αὐταῖς ταῖς θύραις, ᾧ προστεταγμένον ἐστὶν ἐξ ἐμοῦ κομίσαι σε εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν, οὗ καὶ Κλεινίαν καὶ Σάτυρον εὑρήσεις καὶ [3] Λευκίππη σοι παρέσται.’ Ταῦτα ἅμα λέγουσα ἐσκεύα�
�έ με ὡς ἑαυτὴν καὶ καταφιλοῦσα ‘ὡς εὐμορφότερος’ ἔφη ‘παρὰ πολὺ γέγονας τῇ στολῇ. Τοιοῦτον Ἀχιλλέα ποτε ἐθεασάμην ἐν γραφῇ. Ἀλλά μοι, φίλτατε, σώζοιο, καὶ τὴν ἐσθῆτα ταύτην φύλαττε μνήμην: ἐμοὶ δὲ τὴν σὴν κατάλιπε, ὡς ἂν ἔχοιμι ἐνδυομένη [4] σοι περικεχύσθαι.’ Δίδωσι δέ μοι καὶ χρυσοῦς ἑκατὸν καὶ καλεῖ τὴν Μελανθώ: θεράπαινα δὲ ἦν αὕτη τῶν πιστῶν καὶ ἐφήδρευε ταῖς θύραις. Ὡς δὲ εἰσῆλθε, λέγει περὶ ἐμοῦ τὰ συγκείμενα καὶ κελεύει πάλιν ἀναστρέφειν πρὸς αὐτήν, ἐπειδὰν ἔξω γένωμαι τῶν θυρῶν.
1. WHEN therefore I had done my best to give Melitte her cure, I said to her: “Now you must take care to ensure my safe escape, and to perform the rest of the promise which you made me about Leucippe.”
“Do not be anxious on her account,” she answered; “you can consider that Leucippe is already yours. But do you put on my clothes, and cover your face with this garment. Melantho will shew you the way to the door, and then, just outside, there is waiting for you a young man who has instructions from me to convey you to the house where you will find Clinias and Satyrus, and Leucippe will soon be there with you.” With these words, she dressed me up to resemble herself; and then, kissing me, “How much more beautiful still,” said she, “you look in these clothes; you are like the Achilles that I once saw in a picture. (He was concealed by his mother Thetis in female attire at the court of King Lycomedes in Scyros so that he might not have to go to the Trojan war, which would be fatal to him, but was discovered by choosing a helmet and spear from among an array of gifts set out for the maidens of the court.) I wish you good luck, my dearest; keep these garments to remind you of me, and leave me yours; when I put them on I shall still have the illusion of being in your embrace.” She then gave me a hundred pieces of gold, and called Melantho, who was her serving-maid and among those whom she could entirely trust; she had been sitting at the door. On her entry, she told her the arrangements that had been made about me, and bade her come back again to her directly that I was outside the house.
[1] Ἐγὼ μὲν δὴ τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον ὑπεκδύομαι, καὶ ὁ φύλαξ τοῦ οἰκήματος ἀνεχώρησε νομίσας τὴν δέσποιναν εἶναι, νευσάσης αὐτῷ τῆς Μελανθοῦς: καὶ διὰ τῶν ἐρήμων τῆς οἰκίας ἐπί τινα θύραν οὐκ ἐν ὁδῷ κειμένην ἔρχομαι, καί με ὁ πρὸς τῆς Μελίτης ταύτῃ προστεταγμένος ἀπολαμβάνει. [2] Ἀπελεύθερος δὲ οὗτος τῶν συμπεπλευκότων ἦν ἡμῖν καὶ ἄλλως ἐμοὶ κεχαρισμένος. Ὡς δὲ ἀνέστρεψεν ἡ Μελανθώ, καταλαμβάνει τὸν φρουρὸν ἄρτι ἐπικλείσαντα τὸ οἴκημα, καὶ ἀνοίγειν ἐκέλευσεν αὖθις. [3] Ὡς δὲ ἀνέῳξε, καὶ παρελθοῦσα ἐμήνυσε τῇ Μελίτῃ τὴν ἔξοδον τὴν ἐμήν, καλεῖ τὸν φύλακα: κἀκεῖνος, ὡς τὸ εἰκός, θέαμα ἰδὼν παραδοξότατον ἐξεπλάγη καὶ ἔστη σιωπῇ. [4] Λέγει οὖν πρὸς αὐτὸν ‘οὐκ ἀπιστοῦσά σοι μὴ οὐκ ἐθελήσῃς ἀφεῖναι Κλειτοφῶντα, ταύτης ἐδεήθην τῆς κλοπῆς, ἀλλ̓ ἵνα σοι πρὸς Θέρσανδρον ἡ τῆς αἰτίας ἀπόλυσις ᾖ ὡς οὐ συνεγνωκότι. [5] Χρυσοῖ δέ σοι οὗτοι δῶρον δέκα, δῶρον μέν, ἂν ἐνταῦθα μείνῃς, παρὰ Κλειτοφῶντος: ἐὰν δὲ νομίσῃς φυγεῖν βέλτιον, ἐφόδιον.’ Καὶ ὁ Πασίων （τοῦτο γὰρ ἦν ὄνομα τῷ φύλακι） ‘πάνυ’ ἔφη ‘δέσποινα, τὸ σοὶ δοκοῦν [6] κἀμοὶ δοκεῖ καλῶς ἔχειν.’ Ἔδοξεν οὖν τῇ Μελίτῃ τὸ νῦν ἀναχωρεῖν: ὅταν δ̓ ἐν καλῷ θῆται τὰ πρὸς τὸν ἄνδρα καὶ γένηται τὰ τῆς ὀργῆς ἐν γαλήνῃ, τότε μετιέναι.
2. I thus slipped out. The warder of the cell made way for me, thinking that I was his mistress, at a sign from Melantho, and I passed through the empty passages of the house to a door which did not open on to the street; and there the young man received me who had been appointed by Melitte for this service. He was a freedman, one of those who had been with us on the voyage, (The voyage from Alexandria to Ephesus.) and I had made friends with him previously. Melantho then went back and found the warder just locking the doors of the cell; she told him to open them again, and after he had complied with her request, she went in, told Melitte of my safe evasion, and called in the keeper. He, as might only be expected, when he saw this extraordinary substitution, like that of the stag for the maiden in the fable, (When Iphigenia was about to be sacrificed to Diana at Aulis, as happened with Isaac and the ram. Hercher wished to omit the comparison as the note of a scribe, but it seems to me not unlike the style of our author.) stood struck dumb. “It was no distrust in you,” said Melitte to him, “lest you should be unwilling to let Clitophon out, that made me employ this stratagem, but so that in Thersander’s eyes you might be free of all blame, as one not privy to the plot. Here is a present for you of ten pieces of gold — a present from Clitophon if you choose to stay here, or journey-money if you think it would be better to take flight.” Certainly, Mistress,” said Pasion (that was the warder’s name), “I shall agree to whatever you think best.” Melitte advised him to go away for a time, and afterwards, when the relations between her and her husband were restored to tranquillity, and the latter’s rage was calmed, to return. This was the course he actually followed.
[1] Καὶ ὁ μὲν οὕτως ἔπραξεν: ἐμοὶ δὲ ἡ συνήθης τύχη πάλιν ἐπιτίθεται καὶ συντίθεται κατ̓ ἐμοῦ δρᾶμα καινόν: ἐπάγει γάρ μοι τὸν Θέρσανδρον αὖθις ἐπανελθόντα. Μεταπεισθεὶς γὰρ ὑπὸ τοῦ φίλου, πρὸς ὃν ᾤχετο, μὴ ἀπόκοιτος γενέσθαι, δειπνήσας πάλιν ἀνέστρεφεν ἐπὶ τὴν οἰκίαν. [2] Ἦν δὲ τῆς Ἀρτέμιδος ἱερομηνία, καὶ μεθυόντων πάντα μεστά, ὥστε καὶ δἰ ὅλης τῆς νυκτὸς τὴν ἀγορὰν ἅπασαν κατεῖχε πλῆθος ἀνθρώπων. Κἀγὼ μὲν ἐδόκουν τοῦτο μόνον εἶναι δεινόν: ἐλελήθει δὲ καὶ ἄλλο τεχθέν μοι χαλεπώτερον. [3] Ὁ γὰρ Σωσθένης ὁ τὴν Λευκίππην ὠνησάμενος, ὃν ἡ Μελίτη τῆς τῶν ἀγρῶν ἐκέλευσεν ἀποστῆναι διοικήσεως, μαθὼν παρεῖναι τὸν δεσπότην τούς τε ἀγροὺς οὐκέτι ἀφῆκε τήν τε Μελίτην ἤθελεν ἀμύνασθαι. [4] Καὶ πρῶτον μὲν φθάσας καταμηνύει μου πρὸς τὸν Θέρσανδρον: ὁ γὰρ διαβαλὼν αὐτὸς ἦν: ἔπειτα καὶ περὶ Λευκίππης λέγει τι πάνυ πιθανῶς πλασάμενος. Ἐπεὶ γὰρ αὐτὸς αὐτῆς ἀπεγνώκει τυχεῖν, μαστροπεύει πρὸς τὸν δεσπότην, ὡς ἂν αὐτὸν τῆς Μελίτης ἀπαγάγοι, ‘κόρην ἐωνησάμην, [5] ὦ δέσποτα, χρῆμά τι κάλλους ἄπιστον. Οὕτως αὐτὴν πιστεύσειας ἀκούων, ὡς ἰδών. Ταύτην ἐφύλαττόν σοι: καὶ γὰρ ἠκηκόειν ζῶντά σε, καὶ ἐπίστευον, διόπερ ἤθελον: ἀλλ̓ οὐκ ἐξέφαινον, ἵνα τὴν δέσποιναν ἐπ
̓ αὐτοφώρῳ καταλάβοις, καὶ μή σου καταγελῴη μοιχὸς ἄτιμος καὶ ξένος. [6] Ἀφῄρηται δὲ ταύτην χθὲς ἡ δέσποινα καὶ ἔμελλεν ἀποπέμψειν: ἡ τύχη δὲ ἐτήρησέ σοι, ὥστε τοσοῦτον κάλλος λαβεῖν. Ἔστι δὲ νῦν ἐν τοῖς ἀγροῖς, οὐκ οἶδ̓ ὅπως πρὸς αὐτῆς ἀπεσταλμένη. Πρὶν οὖν αὖθις ἐπανελθεῖν, εἰ θέλεις, κατακλείσας αὐτὴν φυλάξω σοι, ὡς ὑπὸ σοὶ γένοιτο.’
Complete Works of Achilles Tatius Page 74