Works of Nonnus

by Nonnus

  καὶ Διὸς ἀρρήκτοιο κατηκόντιζε προσώπου:

  ἀλλ᾽ ὁ μὲν ἀντικέλευθον ἀλεύατο μάρμαρον αἰχμὴν

  460 κρᾶτα παρακλίνας, στεροπῆς δ᾽ ἐτύχησε Τυφωεὺς

  θερμὸν ἀμειβομένης ἕλικα δρόμον, αἶψα δὲ πέτρη

  ἀκροφαληριόωσα μελαίνετο μάρτυρι καπνῷ.

  καὶ τριτάτην προΐαλλεν: ἐπεσσυμένην δὲ Κρονίων

  πεπταμένης παλάμης μεσάτῳ νωμήτορι καρπῷ,

  465 σφαῖραν ἅτε θρῴσκουσαν, ἀτέρμονι χειρὶ πατάξας

  πέμπε πάλιν Τυφῶνι: μεταστρεφθεῖσα δὲ πολλῇ

  ἠερίῃ στροφάλιγγι παλιννόστοιο πορείης

  αὐτομάτη τόξευεν ὀιστευτῆρα κολώνη.

  τέτρατον ἠκόντιζεν ὑπέρτερον: ἁψαμένη δὲ

  470 αἰγίδος ἀκροτάτων θυσάνων ἐδιχάζετο πέτρη.

  ἄλλην δὲ προέηκεν: ἀελλήεσσα δὲ πέτρη

  ἡμιδαὴς σελάγιζεν ὀιστευθεῖσα κεραυνῷ.

  οὐ σκοπιαὶ νέφος ὑγρὸν ἀνέσχισαν, ἀλλὰ τυπεῖσαι

  ὑδρηλαῖς νεφέλῃσι διερρήγνυντο κολῶναι.

  [451] Again, he cut straight off sections of the torrent-beds, and designed to crush the breast of Zeus which no iron can wound; the mass of rock came hurtling at Zeus, but Zeus blew a light puff from the edge of his lips, and that gentle breath turned the whirling rock aside with all its towering crags. The monster with his hand broke off a rounded promontory from an island, and rising for the attack circled it round his head again and again, and cast it at the invincible face of Zeus; then Zeus moved his head aside, and dodged the jagged rock which came at him; but Typhon hit the lightning as it passed on its hot zigzag path, and at once the rock was white-patched at the tip and blackened with smoke – there was no mistake about it. A third rock he cast; but Cronion caught it in full career with the flat of his infinite open hand, and by a playful turn of the wrist sent it back like a bouncing ball, to Typhon. The crag returned with many an airy twist along its homeward path, and of itself shot the shooter. A fourth shot he sent, higher than before: the rock touched the tassel-tips of the aegis-cape, and split asunder. Another he let fly: storm-swift the rock flew, but a thunderbolt struck it, and half-consumed, it blazed. The crags could not pierce the raincloud; but the stricken hills were broken to pieces by the rainclouds.

  475 ξυνὴ δ᾽ ἀμφοτέροισιν ἰσόρροπος ἦεν Ἐνυὼ

  καὶ Διὶ καὶ Τυφῶνι: πολυφλοίσβῳ δὲ βελέμνῳ

  αἰθέρος ὀρχηστῆρες ἐβακχεύοντο κεραυνοί.

  μάρνατο δὲ Κρονίδης κεκορυθμένος: ἐν δὲ κυδοιμῷ

  βροντὴν μὲν σάκος εἶχε, νέφος δέ οἱ ἔπλετο θώρηξ,

  480 καὶ στεροπὴν δόρυ πάλλε, Διιπετέες δὲ κεραυνοὶ

  ἠερόθεν πέμποντο πυριγλώχινες ὀιστοί:

  ἤδη γὰρ περίφοιτος ἀπὸ χθονίου κενεῶνος

  ξηρὸς ἀερσιπότητος ἀνέδραμεν ἀτμὸς ἀρούρης,

  καὶ νεφέλης ἔντοσθεν ἐελμένος αἴθοπι λαιμῷ

  485 πνίγετο θερμαίνων νέφος ἔγκυον: ἀμφὶ δὲ καπνῷ

  τριβομένων καναχηδὰ πυριτρεφέων νεφελάων

  θλιβομένη πεφόρητο δυσέκβατος ἐνδόμυχος φλὸξ

  διζομένη μέσον οἶμον, ἐπεὶ σέλας ὑψόθι βαίνειν

  οὐ θέμις: ἀστεροπὴν γὰρ ἀναθρῴσκουσαν ἐρύκει

  490 ὀμβρηρῇ ῥαθάμιγγι λελουμένος ἴκμιος ἀήρ,

  πυκνώσας νέφος ὑγρὸν ὑπέρτερον: ἀζαλέου δὲ

  νειόθεν οἰγομένοιο διέδραμεν ἁλλόμενον πῦρ.

  ὡς λίθος ἀμφὶ λίθῳ φλογερὴν ὠδῖνα λοχεύων

  λάινον ἠκόντιζε πολυθλιβὲς αὐτόγονον πῦρ,

  495 πυρσογενὴς ὅτε θῆλυς ἀράσσεται ἄρσενι πέτρῳ:

  οὕτω θλιβομένῃσιν ἀνάπτεται οὐρανίη φλὸξ

  λιγνύι καὶ νεφέλῃσιν: ἀπὸ χθονίοιο δὲ καπνοῦ

  λεπταλέου γεγαῶτος ἐμαιώθησαν ἀῆται.

  ἄλλην δ᾽ ἐξ ὑδάτων μετανάστιον ἀτμίδα γαίης

  500 ἠέλιος φλογερῇσι βολαῖς ἀντωπὸν ἀμέλγων

  τινθαλέῳ νοτέουσαν ἀνείρυσεν αἰθέρος ὁλκῷ:

  ἡ δὲ παχυνομένη νεφέων ὤδινε καλύπτρην,

  σεισαμένη δὲ πάχιστον ἀραιοτέρῳ δέμας ἀτμῷ,

  ἂψ ἀναλυσαμένη μαλακὸν νέφος εἰς χύσιν ὄμβρου,

  505 ὑδρηλὴν προτέρην μετεκίαθεν ἔμφυτον ὕλην.

  τοῖος ἔφυ φλογόεις νεφέων τύπος, οἶσι καὶ αὐτοὶ

  ἰσότυποι στεροπῇσι συνωδὶνοντο κεραυνοί.

  [475] Thus impartial Enyo held equal balance between the two sides, between Zeus and Typhon, while the thunderbolts with booming shots held revel like dancers of the sky. Cronides fought fully armed: in the fray, the thunder was his shield, the cloud his breastplate, he cast the lightning for a spear; Zeus let fly his thunderbolts from the air, his arrows barbed with fire. For already from the underground abyss a dry vapour diffused around rose from the earth on high, and compressed within the cloud was stifled in the fiery gullet, heating the pregnant cloud. For the lurking flame curshed within rushed about struggling to find a passage through; over the smoke the fire-breeding clouds rumble in their agony seeking the middle path; the fires dares not go upwards: for the lightning leaping up is kept back by the moist air bathed in rainy drops, which condenses the seething cloud above, but the lower part is parched and gapes and the fire runs through with a bound. As the female stone is struck by the male stone, one stone on another brings flame to birth, while crushed and beaten it produces from itself a shower of sparks: so the heavenly fire is kindled in clouds and murk crushed and beaten, but from earthy smoke, which is naturally thin, the winds are brought forth. There is another floating vapour, drawn from the waters, which the sun shining full on them with fiery rays milks out and draws up dewy through the boiling track of air. This thickens and produces the cloudy veil; then shaking the thick mass by means of the thinner vapour, it dissolves the fine cloud again into a fall of rain, and returns to its natural condition of water. Such is the character of the fiery clouds, with their twin birth of lightnings and thunders together.

  Ζεὺς δὲ πατὴρ πολέμιζε: κατ᾽ ἀντιβίοιο δὲ πέμπων

  ἠθάδα πυρσὸν ἴαλλεν, ἀκοντιστῆρα λεόντων,

  510 βάλλων ποικιλόφωνον ἀμετρήτων στίχα λαιμῶν

  οὐρανίῳ πρηστῆρι: Διοβλήτου δὲ βελέμνου

  ἓν σέλας ἔφλεγε χεῖρας ἀπείρονας, ἓν σέλας ὤμους

  νηρίθμους ἀμάθυνε καὶ αἰόλα φῦλα δρακόντων,


  καὶ κεφαλὰς ἐδάιξαν ἀτέρμονας αἰθέρος αἰχμαί,

  515 καὶ πλοκάμους Τυφῶνος ἕλιξ ἀμάθυνε κομήτης

  ἀντιπόρῳ σπινθῆρι δασύτριχα πυρσὸν ἰάλλων,

  καὶ κεφαλαὶ σελάγιζον, ἀναπτομένων δὲ κομάων

  βόστρυχα συρίζοντα κατεσφρηγίσσατο σιγὴ

  οὐρανίῳ σπινθῆρι, μαραινομένων δὲ δρακόντων

  520 ἰοβόλοι ῥαθάμιγγες ἐτερσαίνοντο γενείων:

  μαρναμένου δὲ Γίγαντος ἐτεφρώθησαν ὀπωπαὶ

  καπνῷ λιγνυόεντι, νιφοβλήτων δὲ προσώπων

  χιονέαις λιβάδεσσιν ἐλευκαίνοντο παρειαί.

  καὶ πισύρων ἀνέμων τετράζυγον εἶχεν ἀνάγκην:

  525 εἰ γὰρ ἐς ἀντολίην σφαλερὰς ἐλέλιζεν ὀπωπάς,

  ὑσμίνην φλογόεσσαν ἐδέχνυτο γείτονος Εὔρου:

  εἰ κλίσιν ἐσκοπίαζε δυσήνεμον Ἀρκάδος Ἄρκτου,

  χειμερίου πρηστῆρος ἀθαλπέι βάλλετο πάχνῃ:

  φεύγων ψυχρὸν ἄλημα νιφοβλήτοιο Βορῆος

  530 καὶ διερῷ δεδόνητο καὶ αἰθαλόεντι βελέμνῳ:

  καὶ δύσιν εἰσορόων βλοσυρῆς ἀντώπιον Ἠοῦς

  ἑσπερίην ἔφριξε θυελλήεσσαν Ἐνυώ,

  εἰαρινῆς ἀίων Ζεφυρηίδος ἦχον ἱμάσθλης:

  καὶ Νότος ἀμφὶ τένοντα μεσημβρινὸν Αἰγοκερῆος

  535 ἄντυγας ἠερίας ἐπεμάστιε, θερμὸς ἀήτης,

  φλογμὸν ἄγων Τυφῶνι πυραυγέι καύματος ἀτμῷ.

  εἰ πάλιν ὄμβρον ἔχευε κατάρρυτον ὑέτιος Ζεύς,

  λυσιπόνοις λιβάδεσσιν ὅλον χρόα λοῦσε Τυφωεὺς

  θερμὰ καταψύχων κεκαφηότα γυῖα κεραυνῷ.

  [508] Zeus the father fought on: raised and hurled his familiar fire against his adversary, piercing his lions, and sending a fiery whirlwind from heaven to strike the battalion of his innumerable necks with their babel of tongues. Zeus cast his bolt, one blaze burnt the monster’s endless hands, one blaze consumed his numberless shoulders and the speckled tribes of his serpents; heaven’s blades cut off those countless heads; a writhing comet met him front to front discharging a thick bush of sparks, and consumed the monster’s hair. Typhon’s heads were ablaze, the hair caught fire; with heaven’s sparks silence sealed the hissing tresses, the serpents shrivelled up, and in their throats the poison-spitting drops were dried. The Giant fought on: his eyes were burnt to ashes in the murky smoke, his cheeks were whitened with hoar-frost, his faces beaten with showers of snow. He suffered the fourfold compulsion of the four winds. For if he turned flickering eyes to the sunrise, he received the fiery battle of neighbouring Euros. If he gazed towards the stormy clime of the Arcadian Bear, he was beaten by the chilly frost of wintry whirlwinds. If he shunned the cold blast of snow-beaten Boreas, he was shaken by the volleys of wet and hot together. If he looked to the sunset, opposite to the dawn of the grim east, he shivered before Enyo and her western tempests when he heard the noise of Zephyros cracking his spring-time lash; and Notos, that hot wind, round about the southern foot of Capricorn flogged the aerial vaults, leading against Typhon a glowing blaze with steamy heat. If again Rainy Zeus poured down a watery torrent, Typhoeus bathed all his body in the trouble-soothing showers, and refreshed his benumbed limbs after the stifling thunderbolts.

  540 καὶ κραναοῖς βελέεσσι χαλαζαίου νιφετοῖο

  παιδὸς ἱμασσομένου τραφερὴ μαστίζετο μήτηρ:

  δερκομένη δὲ Γίγαντος ἐπὶ χροῒ μάρτυρα Μοίρης

  λάινα πηκτὰ βέλεμνα καὶ ὑδατόεσσαν ἀκωκὴν

  ἠέλιον Τιτῆνα κατηφέι λίσσετο φωνῇ,

  545 ἓν φάος αἰτίζουσα θερείτατον, ὄφρά κε πυρσῷ

  θερμοτέρῳ λύσειε Διὸς πετρούμενον ὕδωρ

  νιφομένῳ Τυφῶνι χέων ἐμφύλιον αἴγλην:

  καί οἱ ἱμασσομένῳ συνετήκετο: καιομένων δὲ

  ἠλιβάτων ὁρόωσα πυριστεφὲς ἔθνος ἀγοστῶν

  550 χειμερίην ἱκέτευε μολεῖν δυσπέμφελον αὔρην

  εἰς μίαν ἠριγένειαν, ἵνα ψυχροῖσιν ἀήταις

  διψαλέην Τυφῶνος ἀποσβέσσειεν ἀνάγκην.

  [540] Now as the son was scourged with frozen volleys of jagged hailstones, his mother the dry Earth was beaten too; and seeing the stone bullets and icy points embedded in the Giant’s flesh, the witness of his fate, she prayed to Titan Helios with submissive voice: she begged of him one red hot ray, that with its heating fire she might melt the petrified water of Zeus, by pouring his kindred radiance over frozen Typhon. She herself melted along with his bruised body; and when she saw his legion of highclambering hands burnt all round, she besought one of the tempestuous winter’s blasts to come for one morning, that he might quench Typhon’s overpowering thirst by his cool breezes.

  Ἰσοτύπου δὲ τάλαντα μάχης ἔκλινε Κρονίων.

  χειρὶ δὲ δενδρήεσσαν ἀπορρίψασα καλύπτρην

  555 μήτηρ ἄχνυτο Γαῖα, Τυφαονίων κεφαλάων

  καπνὸν ὀπιπεύουσα: μαραινομένων δὲ προσώπων

  γηγενέος λύτο γοῦνα: προθεσπίζουσα δὲ νίκην

  βρονταίοις πατάγοισι Διὸς μυκήσατο σάλπιγξ:

  ἤριπε δ᾽ οὐρανίῳ μεθύων φλογόεντι βελέμνῳ,

  560 ὠτειλήν ἀσίδηρον ἔχων πολέμοιο, Τυφωεὺς

  ὑψιτενής, καὶ νῶτα βαλὼν ἐπὶ μητέρι Γαίῃ

  κεῖτο, περιστορέσας ὀφιώδεα γυῖα κονίῃ,

  πυρσὸν ἀναβλύζων. Κρονίδης δ᾽ ἐρέθιζε γελάσσας,

  τοῖον ἔπος προχέων φιλοπαίγμονος ἀνθερεῶνος:

  [553] Then Cronion inclined the equally balanced beam of the fight. But Earth his Mother had thrown off her veil of forests with her hand, and just then was grieving to behold Typhaon’s smoking heads. While his faces were shrivelling, the Giant’s knees gave way beneath him; the trumpet of Zeus brayed, foretelling victory with a roll of thunder; down fell Typhoeus’s high-uplifted frame, drunk with the fiery bolt from heaven, stricken with a war-wound of something more than steel, and lay with his back upon Earth his mother, stretching his snaky limbs in the dust and belching flame. Cronides laughed aloud, and taunted him like this in a flood of words from his mocking throat:

  565 ‘Καλὸν ἀοσσητῆρα γέρων Κρόνος εὗρε, Τυφωεῦ:

  χθὼν μόγις υἷα λόχευσε, μέγαν γόνον Ἰαπετοῖο:

  ἡδὺς ὁ Τιτήνων τιμήορος: ὡς ὁρόω δέ,

  ἀδρανέες γεγάασι τάχα Κρονίδαο κεραυνοί.

  δηθύνεις τέο μέχρις ἀνέμβατον αἰθέρα ναίειν,

  570 ψευδόμενε σκηπτοῦχε; μένει δ
έ σε θῶκος Ὀλύμπου:

  σκῆπτρα Διὸς καὶ πέπλα θεημάχε δέξο Τυφωεῦ

  Ἀστραῖον δὲ κόμισσον ἐς οὐρανόν: ἢν δ᾽ ἐθελήσῃς,

  αἰθέρι νοστήσειε καὶ Εὐρυνόμη καὶ Ὀφίων

  καὶ Κρόνος ἀμφοτέροισιν ὁμόστολος: ἐρχομένῳ δὲ

  575 σὺν σοὶ ποικιλόνωτον ἐς ὑψιπόρων ἴτυν ἄστρων

  δεσμὰ φυγὼν δολόμητις ὁμαρτήσειε Προμηθεύς,

  ἥπατος ἡβώοντος ἀφειδέα δαιτυμονῆα

  οὐρανίης θρασὺν ὄρνιν ἔχων πομπῆα κελεύθου.

  τί πλέον ἤθελες ἄλλο μετὰ κλόνον ἠὲ νοῆσαι

  580 Ζῆνα καὶ ἐννοσίγαιον ὀπάονα σεῖο θοώκων;

  Ζῆνα μὲν ἀδρανέοντα καὶ οὐ σκηπτοῦχον Ὀλύμπου,

  βροντῆς καὶ νεφέων γυμνούμενον, ἀστεροπῆς δὲ

  ἀντὶ πυρὸς ζαθέοιο καὶ ἠθάδος ἀντὶ κεραυνοῦ

  δαλὸν ἀερτάζοντα Τυφαονίῳ παρὰ παστῷ,

  585 ληιδίης ἀλόχοιο τεῆς θαλαμηπόλον Ἥρης

  ὀφθαλμῷ κοτέοντι τεῶν ζηλήμονα λέκτρων:

  σύζυγα δ᾽ ἐννοσίγαιον ἀποζευχθέντα θαλάσσης

  ὑμετέρῃ μετὰ πόντον ὑποδρήσσοντα τραπέζῃ,

  διψάδι χειρὶ φέροντα τεὸν δέπας ἀντὶ τριαίνης.

  590 Ἄρεα λάτριν ἔχεις, θεράπων τεός ἐστιν Ἀπόλλων:

  πέμπε δὲ Τιτήνεσσι διάκτορον υἱέα Μαίης

  σὸν κράτος ἀγγέλλοντα καὶ οὐρανίην σέθεν αἴγλην:

  ἐργατίνην δ᾽ Ἥφαιστον ἐθήμονι κάλλιπε Λήμνῳ,

  ὄφρά κεν ἀσκήσειε νεοζεύκτῳ σέο νύμφῃ