Collected Fragments of Ennius

by Quintus Ennius

  Perseus

  As surely as Trivia, Titan’s daughter, will grant you off-spring of children.

  Titan’s daughter Trivia is Diana....

  Athamas

  Athamas, a Thessalian king, in the belief that his wife Ino was dead, married Themisto, only to learn that Ino was still alive on Parnassus, whither she had come on account of the Bacchic celebrations there. He took Ino back without telling her or Themisto who she was; but Themisto, knowing that Ino was alive somewhere, planned to murder Ino’s two sons, unknowingly choosing Ino herself to help her. Ino was to dress her sons in black, and Themisto’s two children in white; but she did the reverse, and Themisto having killed her own children by mistake, killed herself also. Ennius’ model is not known, but it may have been Euripides’ Ἰνώ (R., 204–5; Hygin., Fab., 4). In the single surviving fragment it seems that a messenger tells of the Bacchic crowd in which Ino was apparently found.

  128–32

  Charisius: Maro in Book VII (389) has ‘euhoe’... Ennius in Athamas —

  Messenger?

  Some ‘God of Noise’ were mouthing, others ‘Father Bacchus,’ others again ‘The Loosener, Discoverer of the all-hallowed vine’! Then group by group the gathering of girls, Beyond our ken, in concert striking up, Sang ‘Euhan euhoe euhoe Euhium,’ Upleaping in a brisk and Bacchic measure.

  Cresphontes

  The original of this play is unknown, but the only other play of this name is the lost Kρησφόντης of Euripides (V., CCIV and prooem. 1888–9, 17 ff., from whom I differ materially; R., 186 ff. is not convincing). Polyphontes of Messenia slew Cresphontes (who in the division of the Peloponnese by the Heracleidae had gained Messenia by a trick), took his kingdom and married his widow Merope; a surviving son of Cresphontes with the same name Cresphontes (thus Euripides; Telephontes or Aegyptus in other versions) was brought up in Aetolia; and wishing to avenge his father’s death, came to Polyphontes’ court, told him that he had killed the survivor, and demanded the blood-money promised by Polyphontes. Cresphontes killed Polyphontes at a sacrifice and became master of the kingdom.

  133

  Someone questions Merope about her father’s history?:

  Nonius: ‘Sortirent’ for ‘sortirentur.’... Ennius in Cresphontes —

  Or did they share among themselves by lot The city and its territory?

  134–5

  Merope bewails the fate of Cresphontes and his sons:

  Macrobius, on Virgil’s ‘Nor did I your mother lead you, yes, your dead body, to burial, or close your eyes, or cleanse yours wounds’: Ennius in Cresphontes —

  Merope

  or did they let me shroud their blood-stained bodies, Nor throw earth over them; nor could a tear Of grief bathe salt their blood.

  136

  Merope describes her forced marriage with Polyphontes:

  Festus: ‘Quaesere’... for ‘quaerere’... —

  He took me to wife for to get children of his own.

  137

  Polyphontes entertained the younger Cresphontes(? Telephontes) until his story might be proved true:

  Festus: ‘Redhostire,’ to render thanks... —

  Hear and make requital follow on what you hear.

  138

  Cresphontes (?) the younger is determined to kill Polyphontes:

  Gellius on ‘deprecor’:... Ennius in Cresphontes —

  What, though I be merciful to my own life, must I forbear death to a foe?

  139

  The sacrifice at which Cresphontes (?) killed Polyphontes:

  Nonius: ‘Nitidant,’ they wash clean, a term derived from ‘nitor.’... —

  They call to her to come with them, they go to the spring; and they cleanse their bodies.

  Erechtheus

  There can be no doubt that Ennius followed Euripides’ Ἐρεχθεύς, of which Lycurgus gives us the plot as follows:

  Lycurgus: For they say that Eumolpus, a son of Poseidon and Chione, came with a body of Thracians to lay claim to this land of Attica, and that the king at that time happened to be Erechtheus, who had Praxithea, Cephisus’ daughter, as his wife. He, when the great army was about to make an invasion into their land, went to Delphi, and asked the god what he should do to gain the victory over his foes. When the god had answered him that he would get the mastery over his foes if he were to sacrifice his daughter before the two armies came to blows, he obediently did this, and expelled the attacking host from the land.

  140–41

  Erechtheus and Praxithea debate as to whether they shall sacrifice their daughter:

  Servius(supplemented), on ‘occumbere morti’ in Virgil: This is a figure of speech of a strange kind and quite out of the way. Ennius —

  ... that our children shield us, And fall in death’s way for our own lives’ sake.

  142–3

  Nonius: ‘Deprecor,’...I thrust away... —

  Praxithea For which I now through my distress do win Freedom, for whom I pray God to forbear Slavery through my woe. 144

  Festus: ‘Neminis’... Ennius in Erechtheus —

  Stony-hearted are there many, Who have no pity, no, for nobody.

  145–6

  The battle:

  Macrobius, quoting Virgil: ‘Then the steely earth bristled with spears.’ ‘Bristles’ is hero a strange expression. But Ennius also... in Erechtheus —

  Weapons they raised; then bristled up the spears.

  Eumenides

  This play was modelled, if freely, upon Εὐμενίδες of Aeschylus, and thus the order of the fragments is in most cases certain.

  147–8

  Orestes before the temple of Athene Polias at Athens replies to the attack of pursuers:

  Nonius: ‘Opino’ for ‘opinor.’... Ennius in Eumenides —

  Orestes Best silence keep, I think; and you will know How to be wise with all your powers, how talk When talking’s safe. 149

  Orestes tells his case to Minerva:

  Nonius: ‘Exanclare,’ to pour out... —

  Orestes Unless by spilling out my mother’s blood My father I avenged. 150–53

  Apollo defends Orestes at the Areopagus:

  Cicero: For what is more honourable than that an old man who has discharged offices and duties of state should be able to say, with justice on his side, what your Pythian Apollo says in Ennius, that he is the one —

  Apollo

  from whom for themselves peoples and kings seek counsel when they are unsure about their affairs, whom I in my helpfulness send away confirmed in their designs and sure instead of unsure so that they may not treat rashly things that are troublous.

  For without doubt the lawyer’s house is the whole city’s oracle.

  154

  Apollo expounds the precedence of a father’s rights over a mother’s:

  Nonius: ‘Expedibo’ for expediam... —

  Apollo That he was fair and just in doing it I will unfold and tell. 155

  Acquittal of Orestes:

  Nonius: ‘Facessere’ means to withdraw... —

  Minerva I proclaim Orestes has prevailed — Get you away from there. 156

  Varro: Of Ennius we have —

  Because the judges of the hill of Ares Have cast an equal ballot.

  ‘Areopagitae’ is from Areopagus; this is a place at Athens.

  157–61

  Minerva enjoins the Furies to bless Attica:

  Cicero: But here where we dwell there cease not each in its season —

  Minerva The sky to shine, the trees to put forth leaves,

  Joy-making vines to sprout with fresh young shoots,

  Their branches to bend down with grapes abundant,

  The growing cornfields to bestow their harvests,

  All things to bloom, the springs to bubble, meads

  To be o’erclothed with grasses.

  The Ransom of Hector

  This play offers several problems which cannot be discussed here (R., 188 ff., V., CCV–CCVII), but the following po
ints have a degree of probability which justifies their mention: — (a) that Hyginus, in Plot 106, entitled The Ransom of Hector, carelessly sketched Ennius’ play, so that we may assume that Ennius covered events from the sulking of Achilles (and its cause, told in a prologue?) to the delivery of the dead Hector to Priam and the burial of Hector; (b) that Aeschylus wrote a trilogy (‘The Myrmidons,’ ‘The Daughters of Nereus,’ ‘The Phrygians’ or ‘The Ransom of Hector’) which extended from the sending out of Patroclus by Achilles to the delivery of the dead Hector; (c) that Ennius pressed these three plays into one, shaped it to fit the Homeric story, added further details from Homer, and gave it the title of the third play of the trilogy. (R., 124, 126–7; V., l.c.); (d) that the main action begins with the events of the Iliad, Bk. XI.

  Hyginus: Agamemnon, at the time when he gave back Chryseis to Chryses the priest of Apollo Zmintheus, took away from Achilles Briseis daughter of the priest Brises, whom Achilles had brought from Mysia on account of her comely beauty.... Through this wrath of his, Achilles would not go out to battle, but sat in his tent amusing himself with a lute. And when the Argives were in full flight under Hector’s attacks....

  162

  Agamemnon hears an uproar as he prepares for battle:

  Nonius: ‘Tumulti.’ Ennius in The Ransom of Hector —

  Agamemnon What is this shouting here? What means this hubbub? Who is it makes free with my name? 163

  Nonius: ‘Strepiti’ for ‘strepitus’... —

  What means this clatter in the camp?

  164–5

  He is told of an attack made by Hector and Polydamas:

  Nonius: ‘Occupare’ means properly to outstrip... —

  Messenger Hector leads out his armed men in full force, And pitting camp’gainst camp e’en now outstrips us. 166

  Ulysses, hard pressed by the Trojans, shouted thrice for help; Menelaus hears and addresses Ajax:

  Diomedes the grammarian: ‘Nomus’ for the form ‘novimus’... Ennius in The Ransom —

  Menelaus

  Is it right for us to keep quiet? We both know Ulysses’ voice.

  167

  Ulysses wounded talks with Ajax:

  A scholiast, on ‘Who was not wounded, etc’ (see below) in Cicero: This incident is staged in Ennius at the time when Achilles, on account of Briseis, chose not to join with the Greeks in fighting; representing the time too when Hector set fire to their fleet. In this fight Ulysses is brought on to the stage wounded, and in the course of his flight he comes to Achilles. When he is asked by Ajax why he has fled, he, in order to cloak his dishonour, says —

  Ulysses

  Who was not wounded there by Brugian blade?

  168

  Servius (supplemented), on ‘foedare’ in Virgil: To stain with blood. Ennius —

  From sword-thrusts fouled with blood they lie.

  169–81

  Eurypylus wounded by Alexander goes for help to Patroclus, and tells him news of the fighting:

  Cicero: Why, we even see many a time wounded soldiers carried away from the battle-line, and moreover your raw and untrained recruit groaning most shamefully even at a very light thrust; but your seasoned veteran, and all the braver for being that, asking for a surgeon merely, and no more, to bind him up, says he —

  Eurypylus

  Patroclus, I come to all of you, and ask to meet help of your hands before I meet death and destruction bestowed by the hand of an enemy — ah no! the flowing blood can in no wise be staunched — to see if death can be evaded by your wisdom above others’; for the colonnades of Aesculapius’ sons are filled full with wounded — none can go near... —

  Patroclus

  Surely it is Eurypylus, no other. A troubled toiler he!

  While distress succeeds distress to such an extent, see how he makes reply without weeping, and even tells why and wherefore it must be borne with a calm mind —

  Eurypylus

  He who plans death for his foe should know well that a like death is planned for himself to share in.

  Patroclus will lead him away, I suppose, that he may lay him down on a bed and bind up his wound — at least he would if he were a man. But I never saw anything less like one. For he asks what has happened —

  Patroclus

  Speak out, speak out — Come, tell me how the fortune of the Argives Maintains itself in battle.

  Eurypylus I cannot tell you of it all in words To fit the deeds that have been done. Patroclus You sink; Lie quiet. Eurypylus And tightly bind the wound.

  Even if Eurypylus could do this, Aesopus could not —

  Eurypylus When Hector’s fortune Made our brave battle-line give way,

  and while still in pain he recounts the rest.

  182

  Further news of Hector’s attach on the ramparts:

  Festus: In thinking that the term ‘obsidio’ should be used rather than obsidium, we are supported by the testimony of Ennius... and in another place —

  Hector who’s not slow in drawing round a blockade,

  183

  News that Hector has broken open the gates:

  Cicero: ‘Burrus’ is the form always used by Ennius, never ‘Pyrrhus’ —

  The Brugians by force have broken open...

  Not ‘Phrygians.’ The old manuscripts of the author himself make this quite clear.

  Hyginus: And when the Argives were in full flight under Hector’s attacks, Achilles, scolded by Patroclus, gave up to him his weapons, with which Patroclus put to flight the Trojans, who believed him to be Achilles, and slew Sarpedon son of Jupiter and Europa.

  184–6

  Patroclus orders Automedon to harness the horses Xanthos and Balios for battle:

  Nonius: ‘Tenacia’ means perseverance and sturdiness... —

  Patroclus

  And lead them in a gallopers’ collar; break, bridle, and harness the horses’ brawny strength though they wish it not;... whose stubbornness... to be bridled with threats,

  187–8

  Achilles is about to send Patroclus (in Achilles’ armour) into battle:

  Nonius: ‘Fuam,’ the same as ‘sim’ or ‘fiam’... —

  Achilles? But yet I beg of thee, almighty god, That this plan be of help to the Achivi. Hyginus: Later on Patroclus himself was killed by Hector, and the weapons were taken from his corpse.

  189

  the sun:

  Diomedes the grammarian: ‘Halare’ and ‘halitare.’ Ennius in The Ransom —

  Antilochus

  Gallopers puffing fire... their lofty course on high

  190

  Antilochus? tells Achilles of the death of Patroclus?:

  Nonius: ‘Specus’ in the masculine gender... —

  Wide roomy caverns of the realms below

  Hyginus: After Patroclus was lost, Achilles was reconciled to Agamemnon and gave Briseis back to him. Then when he had gone forth against Hector unarmed, Thetis his mother obtained weapons for him from Vulcan, and these the Nereids brought to him across the sea.

  191

  Achilles wonders where he can get new weapons:

  Nonius: ‘Cunctant’ for ‘cunctantur’... — Achilles?

  Who might desire their weapons to surrender

  To Achilles so that they themselves become Dawdlers

  192

  Achilles, possessed of new armour through Thetis, addresses his sword and his spear:

  Festus: ‘Redhostire,’ to return a favour... —

  Achilles? O you my sword and you my spear — you weapons Who in close fight some favours will return From my own hand, 193

  A messenger tells of the exploits of Achilles:

  Hyginus: With these weapons Achilles slew Hector and then dragged him, tied to a chariot, round the walls of Troy.

  Nonius: ‘Saeviter’ for ‘saeve’... —

  Messenger Right savagely they settle with the sword Their chance of victory.

  194–5

  Nonius: ‘Derepente’... —

  Messeng
er

  But see, a mist rose over him, and hid him from all view; on a sudden he gathered himself upon his feet.

  196

  Nonius: ‘Sonit’ for ‘sonat’... —

  Messenger Bronze clatters, spears are snapped, Earth sweats with blood. 197

  Nonius: ‘Vagas’ for ‘vagaris’... —

  Messenger Stood still, it seems, Scamander, and the trees Of wind were emptied.

  Hyginus: When Achilles was not willing to give Hector to his father to be buried, Priam at the command of Jupiter entered, under Mercury’s guidance, the camp of the Danai.

  198

  Priam implores the pity of the Myrmidons who are keeping watch at Achilles’ tent:

  Nonius: ‘Commiserescimus’... —

  Priam You watchmen Myrmidons, I pray you all Have pity, by your sacred trust and duties! 199

  Varro: ‘Tueor’ has two meanings, one from the act of looking.... Whence comes that phrase of Ennius —

  Achilles? Is it you I see, O aged man? Ah, heavens!

  Hyginus: Priam took back the dead body of his son for a ransom of gold, and committed him to burial.

  200–1

  Priam, with Polyxena, Andromache and others discussed long with Achilles; the following words are spoken probably by Priam:

  Nonius: ‘Spernere’ again means to set apart... —

  Priam A better thing than bravery is justice; For bravery the wicked oft attain; But justice and fair play do spurn themselves Far from the wicked.