2. So the fellow became my cell-mate and began to play the part that had been taught him. Heaving a simulated groan, “What kind of life,” he said, “am I to live in future? How can I direct my course so as to be out of danger? An honest life has by itself done me no good at all: evil fortune has overwhelmed me, and the waters of fate are closing over my head. I suppose I ought to have guessed the kind of man my fellow-traveller was, and the sort of things he had been doing.” This he murmured to himself and other phrases like it, trying to get a conversation begun with me, so that I should ask him what his trouble was. However, I paid little attention to what he said between his groans; but one of our fellow-prisoners (for in misfortune man is a creature always inquisitive to hear about another’s woes; community of suffering is something of a medicine for one’s own troubles), said to him: “What was the prank that Fortune played you? I dare say you met with a piece of bad luck, and did nothing wrong, if I may judge from my own misfortunes.” So saying, he related his own story, the reason why he was in prison. However, I paid no attention to any of his talk.
[1] Ὡς δ̓ ἐπαύσατο, τὴν ἀντίδοσιν ᾔτει τοῦ λόγου τῶν ἀτυχημάτων ‘λέγοις ἂν’ εἰπὼν ‘καὶ σὺ τὰ σαυτοῦ.’ Ὁ δὲ ‘βαδίζων ἔτυχον’ εἶπε ‘τὴν ἐξ ἄστεος χθές:’ [2] ἐπορευόμην δὲ τὴν ἐπὶ Σμύρνης ὁδόν. Προελθόντι δέ μοι σταδίους τέτταρας νεανίσκος ἐκ τῶν ἀγρῶν προσελθὼν καὶ προσειπὼν καὶ πρὸς μικρὸν συμβαδίσας ‘ποῖ’ ἔφη ‘ἔχεις τὴν ὁδόν;’ ‘Ἐπὶ Σμύρνης’ εἶπον. ‘Κἀγὢ ἔφη ‘τὴν αὐτὴν ἀγαθῇ τύχῃ.’ Τοὐντεῦθεν ἐπορευόμεθα κοινῇ καὶ διελεγόμεθα, οἷα εἰκὸς ἐν ὁδῷ. [3] Ὡς δὲ εἴς τι πανδοκεῖον ἤλθομεν, ἠριστῶμεν ἅμα: κατὰ ταὐτὸ δὲ παρακαθίζουσιν ἡμῖν τινες τέτταρες καὶ προσεποιοῦντο μὲν ἀριστᾶν κἀκεῖνοι, ἐνεώρων δ̓ ἡμῖν πυκνὰ καὶ ἀλλήλοις ἐπένευον. [4] Ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν ὑπώπτευον τοὺς ἀνθρώπους διανοεῖσθαι εἰς ἡμᾶς, οὐ μὴν ἠδυνάμην συνιέναι τί αὐτοῖς ἐθέλοι τὰ νεύματα: ὁ δὲ ὠχρὸς ἐγίνετο κατὰ μικρὸν καὶ ὀκνηρότερον ἤσθιεν, ἤδη δὲ καὶ τρόμος εἶχεν αὐτόν. [5] Ὡς δὲ ταῦτα εἶδον, ἀναπηδήσαντες συλλαμβάνουσιν ἡμᾶς καὶ ἱμᾶσιν εὐθὺς δεσμεύουσι, παίει δὲ κατὰ κόρρης τις ἐκεῖνον: καὶ παταχθείς, ὥσπερ βασάνους παθὼν μυρίας, καταλέγει μηδενὸς ἐρωτῶντος αὐτὸν ‘ἐγὼ τὴν κόρην ἀπέκτεινα, καὶ ἔλαβον χρυσοῦς ἑκατὸν παρὰ Μελίτης τῆς Θερσάνδρου γυναικός: αὕτη γάρ με ἐπὶ τὸν φόνον ἐμισθώσατο. [6] Ἀλλ̓ ἰδοὺ τοὺς χρυσοῦς ὑμῖν τοὺς ἑκατὸν φέρω, ὥστε τί με ἀπόλλυτε καὶ ἑαυτοῖς φθονεῖτε κέρδους;’’ Ἐγὼ δὲ ὡς ἤκουσα Θερσάνδρου καὶ Μελίτης τοὔνομα, τὸν ἄλλον οὐ προσέχων χρόνον, τῷ δὲ λόγῳ τὴν ψυχὴν ὥσπερ ὑπὸ μύωπος παταχθεὶς ἐγείρω καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν μεταστραφεὶς λέγω ‘τίς ἡ Μελίτη;’ Ὁ δὲ ‘Μελίτη ἐστὶν’ ἔφη ‘τῶν ἐνταῦθα πρώτη γυναικῶν. [7] Αὕτη νεανίσκου τινὸς ἠράσθη: Τύριον, οἶμαι, φασὶν αὐτόν: κἀκεῖνος ἔτυχεν ἐρωμένην ἔχων, ἣν εὗρεν ἐν τῇ τῆς Μελίτης οἰκίᾳ πεπραμένην. Ἡ δὲ ὑπὸ ζηλοτυπίας πεφλεγμένη τὴν γυναῖκα ταύτην ἀπατήσασα συλλαμβάνει καὶ παραδίδωσι τῷ νῦν δὴ κακῇ τύχῃ μοι συνωδευκότι φονεῦσαι κελεύσασα. [8] Ὁ μὲν οὖν τὸ ἀνόσιον ἔργον τοῦτο δρᾷ: ἐγὼ δὲ ὁ ἄθλιος οὔτε ἰδὼν αὐτὸν οὔτε ἔργου τινὸς κοινωνήσας ἢ λόγου συναπηγόμην αὐτῷ δεδεμένος, ὡς τοῦ ἔργου κοινωνός. Τὸ δὲ χαλεπώτερον, μικρὸν τοῦ πανδοκείου προελθόντες, τοὺς ἑκατὸν χρυσοῦς λαβόντες παῤ αὐτοῦ τὸν μὲν ἀφῆκαν φυγεῖν, ἐμὲ δὲ ἄγουσι πρὸς τὸν στρατηγόν.’
3. This concluded, he asked the other for the story of his troubles: “Now do you,” said he, “relate what happened to you.”
“I happened yesterday,” replied the other, “to be leaving the town on foot; I was proceeding on the road to Smyrna. When I had gone about half a mile, a young man from the country came up: he hailed me and accompanied me a little way. ‘Where are you going?’ said he. ‘To Smyrna,’ said I. ‘So am I,’ he said, ‘by good luck.’ So from there we went on together, and there passed between us the usual conversation of people journeying together, and when we arrived at an inn, we took our mid-day meal in one another’s company. Then four fellows came and sat down with us: they too pretended to eat, but they kept casting glances at us and nodding and winking at each other. I suspected that they entertained some bad purpose against us, but I could not understand what their signs and nods meant: my companion, however, began to turn pale and ate more and more slowly, and was finally overcome with a fit of trembling. When they saw this, the men jumped up, and, over-powering us, quickly tied us up with leather thongs: one of them struck my companion on the head, and he, as if he had experienced a thousand tortures, began to blurt out, though no one had questioned him: ‘Yes, I killed the girl, and took the bribe of a hundred pieces of gold from Melitte, Thersander’s wife, which was the hire she gave me for the crime. Here is the money: why be the death of me and deprive yourselves of this chance of gain?’”
I had not been attending previously, but when I heard the names of Thersander and Melitte, I started up, seeming to be stung to the heart by what he said as though by the sting of a gadfly: and I turned to him and said, “Who is Melitte?”
“Melitte,” said he, “is a lady of the highest rank among those of this place. She was in love with a certain young man — a Tyrian, they say — and this Tyrian happened to be in love with a girl whom he afterwards found as a bought slave in Melitte’s house. She, fired by jealousy, got hold of this girl by fraud and handed her over to the man with whom it was my bad luck to travel, bidding him put her out of the way. He did indeed commit the crime: but the unhappy I, who had never even seen him or taken any part with him in word or deed, was now being dragged away with him as if I were an accomplice. Worse still, when we had gone a little way from the inn, those who had arrested us accepted his hundred pieces of gold and let him go, while they dragged me hither before the magistrate.”
[1] Ὡς δ̓ ἤκουσά μου τὸν μῦθον τῶν κακῶν, οὔτε ἀνῴμωξα οὔτε ἔκλαυσα: οὔτε γὰρ φωνὴν εἶχον οὔτε δάκρυα: ἀλλὰ τρόμος μὲν εὐθὺς περιεχύθη μου τῷ σώματι καὶ ἡ καρδία μου ἐλέλυτο, ὀλίγον δέ τί μοι τῆς ψυχῆς ὑπολέλειπτο. [2] Μικρὸν δὲ νήψας ἐκ τῆς μέθης τοῦ λόγου ‘τίνα τρόπον τὴν κόρην’ ἔφην ‘ἀπέκτεινεν ὁ μισθωτός, καὶ τί πεποίηκε τὸ σῶμα;’ Ὁ δὲ ὡς ἅπαξ ἐνέβαλέ μοι τὸν μύωπα καὶ ἔργον εἰργάσατο οὕτω κατ̓ ἐμοῦ, δἰ ὃ παρῆν, ἐσιώπα καὶ ἔλεγεν οὐδέν. [3] Πάλιν δέ μου πυθομένου ‘δοκεῖς’ ἔφη ‘κἀμὲ �
�εκοινωνηκέναι τοῦ φόνου; Τοῦτο ἤκουσα μόνον τοῦ πεφονευκότος, ὡς κτείνας εἴη τὴν κόρην: ποῦ δὲ καὶ τίνα τρόπον, οὐκ εἶπεν.’ Ἐπῆλθε δέ μοι τότε δάκρυα καὶ τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς τὴν λύπην ἀπεδίδουν. [4] Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐν ταῖς τοῦ σώματος πληγαῖς οὐκ εὐθὺς ἡ σμῶδιξ ὑπανίσταται, ἀλλὰ παραχρῆμα μὲν οὐκ ἔχει τὸ ἄνθος ἡ πληγή, μετὰ μικρὸν δὲ ἀνέθορε, καὶ ὀδόντι συός τις παταχθεὶς εὐθὺς μὲν ζητεῖ τὸ τραῦμα καὶ οὐκ οἶδεν εὑρεῖν, τὸ δὲ ἔτι δέδυκε καὶ κέκρυπται κατειργασμένον σχολῇ τῆς πληγῆς τὴν τομήν, μετὰ ταῦτα δὲ ἐξαίφνης λευκή τις ἀνέτειλε γραμμή, πρόδρομος τοῦ αἵματος, σχολὴν δ̓ ὀλίγην λαβὸν ἔρχεται καὶ ἀθρόον ἐπιρρεῖ, [5] οὕτω καὶ ψυχὴ παταχθεῖσα τῷ τῆς λύπης βέλει, λόγου τοξεύσαντος τέτρωται μὲν ἤδη καὶ ἔχει τὴν τομήν, ἀλλὰ τὸ τάχος τοῦ βλήματος οὐκ ἀνέῳξεν οὔπω τὸ τραῦμα, τὰ δὲ δάκρυα ἐδίωξε τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν μακράν: δάκρυον γὰρ αἷμα τραύματος ψυχῆς: ὅταν δὲ ὁ τῆς λύπης ὀδοὺς κατὰ μικρὸν τὴν καρδίαν ἐκφάγῃ, κατέρρηκται μὲν τῆς ψυχῆς τὸ τραῦμα, ἀνέῳκται δὲ τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἡ τῶν δακρύων θύρα, τὰ δὲ μετὰ μικρὸν τῆς ἀνοίξεως ἐξεπήδησεν. [6] Οὕτω κἀμὲ τὰ μὲν πρῶτα τῆς ἀκροάσεως τῇ ψυχῇ προσπεσόντα καθάπερ τοξεύματα κατεσίγασε καὶ τῶν δακρύων ἀπέφραξε τὴν πηγήν, μετὰ ταῦτα δὲ ἔρρει, σχολασάσης τῆς ψυχῆς τοῖς κακοῖς.
4. When I heard this trumped-up story of woe, I did not cry aloud nor weep; for I had neither voice nor tears in me. At once a great trembling took hold of all my body; my heart seemed turned to water, and I felt that there was but little of my spirit left in me. When I was slightly recovered from the paralysis (The literal meaning of the Greek is “when I was something sobered from the intoxication caused by his story”: but we use the metaphor of intoxication rather about joy than about grief.) occasioned by his story, I questioned him: “How did the hired murderer kill the girl, and what did he do with her body?” He, the sting once fairly planted and the work done for which he was sent to the prison, kept silence and answered me not a word. When I asked again, “Do you think,” said he, “that I was an accessory in the murder? All I heard from the miscreant was, that he had killed the girl: he did not tell me where or how.” Then came a flood of tears, making a vent for my grief through my eyes. It is like bodily blows — the weal does not come up at once; the bruise does not show directly after the stroke, but comes out suddenly after a little while. If a man gets a slash from a boar’s tusk he looks at once to find the wound but cannot find it, because it is deep-set, and, far down in the flesh, has slowly completed the incision made by the blow; but then suddenly a white streak appears, the precursor of the blood, which after a short interval wells to the surface and flows in abundance. Just in the same way, when the soul is smitten by the dart of grief, the spoken word directing the arrow, it receives the cutting wound: but the rapidity of the blow prevents the wound at first from opening, and keeps the tears far from the eyes. Tears may be considered the blood that flows from the wound of the soul: and after the biting tooth of grief has been for some time gnawing at the heart, only then does the soul’s wound begin to gape, and the portal of tears open in the eyes, and they gush out directly it is opened. So in my case; the news, attacking my soul like an arrow, had struck it to silence and shut off the fount of tears; but afterwards, when it had lain quiet for a time under its woe, they began to flow.
[1] Ἔλεγον οὖν ‘τίς με δαίμων ἐξηπάτησεν ὀλίγῃ χαρᾷ; τίς μοι Λευκίππην ἔδειξεν εἰς καινὴν ὑπόθεσιν συμφορῶν; Ἀλλ̓ οὐδὲ ἐκόρεσά μου τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς, οἷς μόνοις ηὐτύχησα, οὐδὲ ἐνεπλήσθην κἂν βλέπων. [2] Ἀληθής μοι γέγονεν ὀνείρων ἡδονή. Οἴμοι, Λευκίππη, ποσάκις μοι τέθνηκας. Μὴ γὰρ θρηνῶν ἀνεπαυσάμην; Ἀεί σε πενθῶ, τῶν θανάτων διωκόντων ἀλλήλους; Ἀλλ̓ ἐκείνους μὲν πάντας ἡ Τύχη ἔπαιξε κατ̓ ἐμοῦ, οὗτος δὲ οὐκ ἔστι τῆς Τύχης ἔτι παιδιά: [3] πᾶσα γάρ μοι, Λευκίππη, τέθνηκας. Ἐν μὲν γὰρ τοῖς ψευδέσι θανάτοις ἐκείνοις παρηγορίαν εἶχον ὀλίγην τὸ μὲν πρῶτον ὅλον σου τὸ σῶμα, τὸ δὲ δεύτερον κἂν τὴν κεφαλὴν δοκῶν μὴ ἔχειν εἰς τὴν ταφήν: νῦν δὲ τέθνηκας θάνατον διπλοῦν, ψυχῆς καὶ σώματος. Δύο ἐξέφυγες λῃστήρια, τὸ δὲ τῆς Μελίτης πεφόνευκέ σε πειρατήριον. [4] Ὁ δὲ ἀνόσιος καὶ ἀσεβὴς ἐγὼ τὴν ἀνδροφόνον σου κατεφίλησα πολλάκις καὶ συνεπλάκην μεμιασμένας συμπλοκὰς καὶ τὴν Ἀφροδίτης χάριν αὐτῇ παρέσχον πρὸ σοῦ.’
5. I began therefore thus to commune with myself: “What god is it that has thus cheated me by a few moments of joy, and let me have just a glance at Leucippe only to form a new starting-point for miseries? I did not even satisfy my eyes — they were as far as my happiness extended — and take my fill even of gazing at her: all my happiness has been no more than that of a dream. Alas, Leucippe, how often have I seen you die! Have I ever been able to cease from bewailing you? Am I always to be mourning you, one death coming hot upon the heels of another? Yet on all the former occasions Fate was but playing a bad joke on me: this time she is jesting no longer. And now how wholly have I lost you! Each time then, when you falsely seemed to die, I had at least a little consolation; the first time, your whole corpse at least I thought I had, and the second time, all but your head, for me to bury: but now you have died a double death, life and body too. Two brigands’ bands did you escape, and now the contrivance of Melitte, a very pirate-venture of her own, has been your destruction. Accursed and wicked I, that kissed your murderess time and again, that joined with her in a crime-stained embrace, and that imparted to her, before you, the joys of Aphrodite!”
[1] Μεταξὺ δέ μου θρηνοῦντος Κλεινίας εἰσέρχεται, καὶ καταλέγω τὸ πᾶν αὐτῷ καὶ ὅτι μοι δέδοκται πάντως ἀποθανεῖν: ὁ δὲ παρεμυθεῖτο. ‘Τίς γὰρ οἶδεν εἰ ζῇ πάλιν; [2] Μὴ γὰρ οὐ πολλάκις τέθνηκε; μὴ γὰρ οὐ πολλάκις ἀνεβίω; Τί δὲ προπετῶς ἀποθνήσκεις, ὃ καὶ κατὰ σχολὴν ἔξεστιν, ὅταν μάθῃς σαφῶς τὸν θάνατον αὐτῆς;’ ‘Ληρεῖς: τούτου γὰρ ἀσφαλέστερον πῶς ἂν μάθοις; [3] Δοκῶ δὲ εὑρηκέναι τοῦ θανάτου καλλίστην ὁδόν, δἰ ἧς οὐδὲ ἡ θεοῖς ἐχθρὰ Μελίτη παντάπασιν ἀθῷος ἀπαλλάξεται: ἄκουσον δὲ τὸν τρόπον. Παρεσκευασάμην, ὡς οἶσθα, πρὸς τὴν ἀπολογίαν τῆς μοιχείας, εἰ κληρωθείη τὸ δικαστήριον: νῦν δέ μοι δέδοκται πᾶν τοὐναντίον, καὶ τὴν μοιχείαν ὁμολογεῖν καὶ ὡς ἀλλήλων ἐρῶντες ἐγώ τ
ε καὶ Μελίτη κοινῇ τὴν Λευκίππην ἀνῃρήκαμεν. [4] Οὕτω γὰρ κἀκείνη δίκην δώσει κἀγὼ τὸν ἐπάρατον βίον καταλίποιμ̓ ἄν.’ ‘Εὐφήμησον’ ὁ Κλεινίας ἔφη: ‘καὶ τολμήσεις οὕτως ἐπὶ τοῖς αἰσχίστοις ἀποθανεῖν, νομιζόμενος φονεύς, καὶ ταῦτα Λευκίππης;’ ‘Οὐδὲν’ εἶπον ‘αἰσχρόν, ὃ λυπεῖ τὸν ἐχθρόν.’ [5] Καὶ ἡμεῖς μὲν ἐν τούτοις ἦμεν, τὸν δὲ ἄνθρωπον ἐκεῖνον τὸν μηνυτὴν τοῦ ψευδοῦς φόνου μετὰ μικρὸν ἀπολύει ὁ ἐπὶ τῶν δεσμῶν, φάσκων τὸν ἄρχοντα κελεῦσαι κομίζειν αὐτὸν δώσοντα λόγον ὧν αἰτίαν ἔσχεν. [6] Ἐμὲ δὲ παρηγόρει Κλεινίας καὶ ὁ Σάτυρος, εἴ πως δύναιντο πεῖσαι, μηδὲν ὧν διενοήθην εἰς τὴν δίκην εἰπεῖν: ἀλλ̓ ἐπέραινον οὐδέν. Ἐκείνην μὲν οὖν τὴν ἡμέραν καταγωγήν τινα μισθωσάμενοι μετῳκίσαντο, ὡς ἂν μηκέτι παρὰ τῷ τῆς Μελίτης εἶεν συντρόφῳ.
Complete Works of Achilles Tatius Page 79