by Daisy Dunn
THE METAMORPHOSIS OF CERAMBUS
Metamorphoses
Antoninus Liberalis
Translated by Francis Celoria, 1992
In the second century AD the author Antoninus Liberalis assembled an anthology of stories featuring metamorphosis. Myths involving the transformation of mortals into plants, animals or landscape features by angry gods and goddesses were popular throughout antiquity (see also Stories 59 and 64–66). This particular story had originally been published in the now lost Metamorphoses of Nicander, a Greek poet of the second century BC. In this concise retelling, Cerambus, a shepherd, is disturbed from his work on the slopes of Mount Othrys, which lies to the north-east of Lamia in central Greece. Pan, the sylvan god, issues him some advice.
Cerambus, son of Eusirus, who was the son of Poseidon and of Eidothea the nymph of Othreis, lived in the land of the Melians on the spurs of Mount Othrys. He had numerous flocks and herded them himself.
Nymphs would help him since he delighted them as he sang among the mountains. He is said to have been the best singer of those days and was famous for his rural songs. In those hills he devised the shepherd’s pipes and was the first of mankind to play the lyre, composing many beautiful songs.
It is said that because of this the nymphs one day became visible to Cerambus as they danced to the strumming of his lyre. Pan, in goodwill, gave him this advice: to leave Othrys and pasture his flocks on the plain, for the coming winter was going to be exceptionally and unbelievably severe.
Cerambus, with the arrogance of youth, decided – as though smitten by some god – not to drive his beasts from Othrys to the plain. He also uttered graceless and mindless things to the nymphs, saying they were not descended from Zeus, but that Deinó had given birth to them, with the River Spercheius as the father. He also said that Poseidon, for lust of one of them, Diopatra, had made her sisters put down roots and turned them into poplars until, satiated with his desires, he had returned them to their original shapes.
Thus did Cerambus taunt the nymphs. After a short while there came a sudden frost and the streams froze. Much snow fell on the flocks of Cerambus and they were lost to sight as well as were the trees and paths. The nymphs, in anger against Cerambus because of his slanders, changed him into a wood-gnawing Cerambyx beetle.
He can be seen on trunks and has hook-teeth, ever moving his jaws together. He is black, long and has hard wings like a great dung beetle. He is called the ox that eats wood and, among the Thessalians, Cerambyx. Boys use him as a toy, cutting off his head, to wear as a pendant. The head looks like the horns of a lyre made from a tortoiseshell.
FIRST LOVE
Daphnis and Chloe
Longus
Translated by George Thornley, 1657
Set on the island of Lesbos, the birthplace of the love poet Sappho, Daphnis and Chloe is a Greek novel of the late second or early third century AD. The young protagonists of this pastoral romance must overcome a series of impediments to their happiness. Their story, which is presented in the novel as a description of a scene in a picture, has often been considered too rude to print in full. Nothing is known of the life of its author. This translation captures the atmosphere of the original. The story of Daphnis and Chloe spawned a taste for pastoral writing in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe and was a direct inspiration for Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene (1590) as well as a ballet by Maurice Ravel (1912).
Mitylene is a City in Lesbos, and by ancient Titles of honour, it is the Great, and Fair Mitylene. For it is distinguisht, and divided (the Sea flowing in) by a various Euripus, and is adorn’d with many Bridges built of white and polisht Marble. You would not think you saw a City, but an Iland in an Iland. From this Mitylene some twenty furlongs, there lay a Mannor of a certain rich Lord, the most sweet and pleasant prospect under all the Eyes of Heaven. There were Mountains, stored with wild Beasts for Game; there were Hills, and Banks that were spread with Vines; the Fields abounded with all sorts of Corn; the Valleys with Orchards, and Gardens, and purles from the Hills; The Pastures with Sheep, and Goats, and Kine; the Sea billows dashed to the shore as it lay extended along in an open horizon, with a soft and glittering sand. In this sweet Countrey, the field and farm of Mitylene a Goat-herd dwelling, by name Lamo, found an Infant-boy exposed; by such a chance (it seems) as this. There was a Laun, and in it a place of thick Groves, and many brakes, all lined with wand’ring Ivie, the inner ground furred over with a finer sort of grasse, and on that the Infant lay. A Goat coming often hither, neglecting still her own Kid, to attend the wretched child. Lamo observes her frequent outs and Discursations, and pittying that the Kid should be so forsaken, follows her even at high-noon; and anon he sees the Goat walking carefully about the child, holding up, and setting down her feet softly, lest she should chance to tread upon it, or to hurt it with her hooves; and the Infant drawing milk as from the breast of a kind mother. And wondering at it, (as well he might) he comes nearer, and finds it a manchild, a lusty boy, and beautifull; with pretious accoutrements about him, the monuments and admonitions of a secret noble Stem. His mantle, or little Cloak was purple, fastened with a Golden button; and by his side, a little dagger, the handle polisht Ivory. He thought at first to take away the fine Things, and take no thought about the child. But afterwards conceiving shame within himself if he should not imitate the kindnesse and philanthropy that he had seen in that Goat, waiting till the night came on, he brings all to Myrtale his Wife, the boy, his pretious Trinkets, and the Goats. But Myrtale all amazed at This, What (quoth she) do Goats cast boyes? Then he fell to tell her all; namely, how he had found him Exposed; how suckled, how overcome by meer shame he could not leave the sweet child to dye in that forsaken thicket. And therefore when he discerned Myrtale was of his mind, the things exposed together with him, are laid up carefully and hid; they say the boy’s their own child, and put him to the Goat to nurse. And that his name might be indeed a Shepherds name, they agreed to call him Daphnis. And now when two years time was past, a shepherd of the neighbouring fields, had the luck to see such sights and find such rarities as Lamo did. There was a Nymphaeum, a solitary, sacred Cave of the Nymphs, a huge rock, hollow and vaulted within, but round without. The Statues, or Images of the Nymphs were cut out most curiously in stone, bare-footed, and bare-legg’d; their arms naked up to the shoulders; all their hair loose and playing carelessly, their eyes and lips smiting the Moediama, the proper sweetnesse of the Nymphs; their vests, and lawnie-petticoats tied, and tuckt up at the waste. The whole presence made a figure as of a divine ammusing Dance, or Masque. The mouth, and sieling of the Cave reacht the midst of that great rock. And from below out of the Chasme, gusht a strong Chrystal Fountain into a fair current or brook, and made before the holy Cave, a fresh green, and flowery Mead. There were hanged up, and consecrated there, the milking-pailes of fair Maids; Shepherds-pipes, ho-boyes, whistles, and reeds, the Gifts and Anathema’s of the ancient Shepherds. To this Cave the often gadding of an Ewe, made the Shepherd often think, that she undoubtedly was lost. Desiring therefore to correct the straggler, and reduce her to her rule; of a green With, he made a snare, and lookt to catch her in the Cave. But when he came there, he saw things he never dreamed of. For he saw her giving suck from her duggs in a very humane manner; and an Infant, without crying, greedily to lay, first to one dugge, then the t’other, a most neat and fair mouth: for when the Child had suckt enough, the careful Nurse lickt it still, and trimmed it up. That Infant was a Girle, and in such manner as before, was trickt and harnessed out with fine and rich advertisements of her origin and Extraction: on her head she wore a Mitre embroider’d with Gold; her shoes were Gilded; her blankets and Mantle cloth of Gold. Wherefore Dryas thinking with himself that this could not come about without the providence of the Gods, and learning mercy from the Sheep, takes her up into his arms, puts her Monuments into his Scrip, and prayes to the Nymphs he may happily preserve, and bring up, their Suppliant, and Votary. Now therefore when it was time to drive home his flocks, h
e comes to his Cottage, and tells all, that he had seen, to his Wife; shews her what he had found; bids her think she is her daughter; and however, nurse her up, though uncertain, though unknown. Nape, that was her name, began presently to be a Mother, and with a kind of Jealousie would appear to love the Child, lest that Ewe should get more praise; and all in haste gives her the pastoral Name of Chloe, to assure us, it’s their own. These Infants, grew up apace, and still their beauty appeared too excellent to suit with rusticks, or derive at all from Clowns. And Daphnis now is fifteen, and Chloe younger two years. Upon a night Lamo and Dryas had their visions in their sleep. They thought they saw those Nymphs, the Goddesses of the Cave, out of which the Fountain gusht out into a stream; and where Dryas found Chloe; That they delivered Daphnis and Chloe to a certain young boy, very disdainfull, very fair; one that had wings at his shoulders, wore a bowe, and little darts; and that this boy did touch them both with the very self-same dart; and commanded it from thenceforth, one should feed his flock of Goats; the other keep her flock of sheep. This dream being dreamed by both, they could not but conceive grief, to think that Daphnis and Chloe should be nothing but Goat-herds like themselves, when they had read them better fortune from their Infant Swaddling cloaths; and for that cause, had both allowed them bolted bread, with a finer sort of meat, and bin at charge to teach them to read a ballad in the Lesbian Tongue; and whatsoever things were passing brave, among the rurall Swains and Girls. Yet neverthelesse it seemed fit, that the Mandats of the Gods concerning them, who by their providence were saved, should be attended, and obeyed. And having told their dreams to one another, and sacrificed in the cave of the Nymphs to that winged boy (for his name they knew not yet:) They set them out Shepherds with their flocks; and to every thing instructed: how to feed before high-noon, and when the scorching Glare declined; when to drive their flocks to water; when to bring them to the folds; what cattell was disciplin’d with the Crook; what commanded by the Voice. And now this pretty pair of young Shepherds, are as jocund in themselves as if they had got some great Empire, while they sit looking over their goodly flocks; and with more than usual kindnesse, treated both the Sheep and Goats. For Chloe thankfully referred her preservation to a Sheep: and Daphnis had not forgot to acknowledge his to a Goat.
It was the beginning of Spring, and all the flowers of the Launs, Meadowes, Valleyes, and Hills, were now blowing; all was fresh, and green, and odorous. The Bee’s humming from the flowers, the Bird’s warbling from the groves, the Lamb’s skipping on the hills, were pleasant to the ear, and eye. And now when such a fragrancy had filled those blest and happy fields, both the old men and the young, would imitate the pleasant things they heard, and saw; and hearing how the birds did chant it, they began to carroll too; and seeing how the Lambs skipt, tript their light and nimble measures; then to emulate the Bees, they fall to cull the fairest flowers. Some of which in toysome sport they cast in one anothers bosoms, and of some plaited Garlands for the Nymphs. And always keeping near together, had, and did all things in common: for Daphnis often gathered in the straggling sheep; and Chloe often drove the bolder ventrous Goats from the crags, and precipices; and sometimes to one of them, the care of both the flocks was left, while the other did intend some pretty knack, or Toysome play. For all their sport, were sports of children, and of Shepherds. Chloe scudding up and down, and here and there picking up the windlestrawes; would make in plats, a Trap to catch a Grasshopper; and be so wholly bent on that, that she was carelesse of her flocks. Daphnis on the other side, having cut the slender reeds, and bored the quils, or intervals between the joynts, and with his soft wax joyned and fitted one to another; took no care but to practise, or devise some tune, even from morning, to the twilight. Their wine, and their milk, and whatever was brought from home to the fields, they had still in common. And a man might sooner see all the Cattel separate from one another, than he should Chloe and Daphnis, asunder. But while they are thus playing away their time, to sweeten pleasure, afterwards Love procures them these Cares: A Wolf that had a kennel of whelps, came often ravenous upon the fields, and bore away many cattel, because she needed much prey, to keep her self and those cubs. The Villagers therefore meet together, and in the night they dig a ditch of a proportinall Length, and Depth, and Breadth; the earth flung up they scatter all abroad at a good distance, by handfulls; and laying over-crosse the Chasm, long, dry, and rotten sticks, they strow them over with that earth which did remain: that if a Hare did but offer to run there, she could not choose but break those rods, that were as brittle as the stubble; and then would easily make it known, that that indeed was not true, but only Counterfeited Soil. Many such Trap-ditches were digg’d in the Mountains, and the fields; yet they could not take this Wolf, (for she could perceive the Sophi-stick, and commentitious ground:) but many of the Sheep and Goats were there destroyed; and there wanted but a little, that Daphnis too was not slain; and it was on this chance: Two he-goats were exasperated to fight, and the shock was furious. One of them, by the violence of the very first Butt, had one of his horns broke; upon the pain and grief of that, all in a fret and mighty chase, he betakes himself to flight: but the victor pursuing him close, would not let him take breath. Daphnis was vext to see the horn broke, and that kind of male-pertnesse of the Goat; up he catches his club and pursues the pursuer. But, as it frequently happens when one hastes away as fast as possibly he can, and the other with ardency pursues; there was no certain prospect of the things before them, but into the Trap-ditch both fall, first the Goat, then Daphnis. And indeed it was only this that served to save poor Daphnis, that he flunder’d down to the bottome of the ditch a cock-horse on the rough Goat. There in a lamentable case he lay, waiting, if perchance it might be some body to draw him out. Chloe seeing the accident, away she flyes to weep over Daphnis his grave, and found he was alive, though buried there, and calls for help to a herdsman of the adjoyning fields. When he was come, he bustled about for a long Cord: but finding none, Chloe in a tearing haste, pulls off her hair-lace and her fillet, gives him them to let down; and standing on the pit brim, both began to draw and hale; and Daphnis holding fast by it, nimbly followed Chloe’s line, and so ascended to the Top. They drew up too the wretched Goat which now had both his horns broke (so fiercely did the revenge of the victor pursue him,) and they gave him to the herdsman as a reward of the rescue, and redemption of their lives. And if any body mist him at home, they would say it was the Invasion of the Wolf: and so returned to their Sheep and Goats. And when they had found that all were feeding orderly, according to the precepts of Lamo and Dryas; sitting down upon the Trunk of an Oak, they began curiously to search, whether he had hurt any limb in that terrible fall; but nothing was hurt, nothing bloodied; onely his head, his bosome, and some other parts, were durtied by the soil which covered over, and hid the Trap. And therefore they thought it best before the accident was made known to Lamo and Myrtale, that he should wash himself in the Cave of the Nymphs. And coming there together with Chloe, he gives her his Scrip, his Jacket, and his Shirt to hold while he washt.
Chloe kisses Daphnis, who is then abducted by pirates. Chloe plays a tune which incites some cows to capsize the pirate ship. Daphnis is rescued. At the time of the grape harvest, an old man called Philetas talks to the young couple of love.
And, what is Love (quoth Chloe then)? Is he a boy, or is he a bird? And, what can he do, I pray you, Gaffer?
Therefore again—thus Philetas: Love (sweet Chloe) is a god, a young Youth, and very fair, and wing’d to flye. And therefore he delights in youth, follows beauty, and gives our phantasie her wings. His power’s so vaste, that that of Jove is not so great. He governs in the Elements, rules in the Stars, and domineers even o’re the gods, that are his Peers. Nor have you only dominion o’re your Sheep and Goats, for Love has there his range too. All flowers are the works of Love. Those Plants are his creations, and Poems. By him it is that the rivers flow, and by him the winds blow. I have known a Bull that has been in Love, and run bellowing through the
Meadows, as if he had been prickt with a Goad; a he-goat too so in Love with a Virgin-she, that he has followed her up and down, through the woods, through the Launs. And I myself, when I was young, was in love with Amaryllis, and forgot to eat my meat, and drink my drink; and for many tedious nights, never could compose to sleep: my panting heart was very sad and anxious, and my body shook with cold: I cryed out oft, as if I had bin thwackt and basted back and sides: and then again, was still and mute, as if I had layen among the dead: I cast my self into the Rivers, as if I had been all on a fire: I call’d on Pan, that he would help me, as having sometimes bin himself catcht with the Love of peevish Pitys: I praised the Echo, that with kindnesse it restored, and trebbled to me, the dear name of Amaryllis: I broke my Pipes, because they could delight, and lead the sturdy herds which way I would, and could not draw the froward girle. For there is no med’cine for Love, neither meat, nor drink, nor any Charm, but only Kissing, and Embracing, and lying naked together.
The young couple continue kissing. Some young men from a city on Lesbos arrive and beat Daphnis when his goats eat the willows which tether their ship to the shore. Daphnis is separated from Chloe for the winter before being reunited with her.
But Chloe asking him, whether anything remain’d more than kissing, embracing, and lying together upon the ground; or what he could do by lying naked upon a naked Girle?
That (quoth he) which the Rams use to do with the Ewes, and the he-Goats with the She’s. Do you not see, how after that work, neither these run away, nor those weary themselves in pursuit of them; but afterwards how enjoying a common pleasure, they feed together quietly. That… as it seems is a sweet practice, and such as can master the bitternesse of Love.