Works of Nonnus

by Nonnus

  595 ποικίλον αὐχένος ὁρμὸν ἐύχροον ἤνοπι κόσμῳ,

  ἠὲ πεδοστιβέων ἀμαρύγματα φαιδρὰ πεδίλων,

  οἷσι τεὴ παράκοιτις ἀγάλλεται, ἠὲ τελέσσῃ

  χρυσοφαῆ θρόνον ἄλλον Ὀλύμπιον, ὄφρα γελάσσῃ

  κρείσσονα θῶκον ἔχουσα τεὴ χρυσόθρονος Ἥρη:

  600 καὶ χθονίους Κύκλωπας ἔχων ναετῆρας Ὀλύμπου

  τεῦξον ἀρειοτέροιο νέον σπινθῆρα κεραυνοῦ.

  ἀλλὰ δόλῳ θέλξαντα τεὸν νόον ἐλπίδι νίκης

  χρυσῷ δῆσον Ἔρωτα μετὰ χρυσῆς Ἀφροδίτης:

  χαλκῷ σφίγξον Ἄρηα κυβερνητῆρα σιδήρου.

  [565] “A fine ally has old Cronos found in you, Typhoeus! Earth could scarcely bring forth that great son for Iapetos! A jolly champion of Titans! The thunderbolts of Zeus soon lost their power against you, as I see! How long are you going to wait before taking up your quarters in the inaccessible heavens, you sceptred impostor? The throne of Olympos awaits you: accept the robes and sceptre of Zeus, God-defying Typhoeus! Bring back Astraios to heaven; if you wish, let Eurynome and Ophion return to the sky, and Cronos in the train of that pair! When you enter the dappleback vault of highranging stars, let crafty Prometheus leave his chains, and come with you; the bold bird who makes hearty meals off that rejuvenescent liver shall show him the way to heaven. What did you want to gain by your riot, but to see Zeus and Earthshaker footmen behind your throne? Well, here you have Zeus helpless, no longer sceptre-bearer of Olympos, Zeus stript of his thunders and his clouds, holding up no longer the lightning’s fire divine or the familiar thunderbolt, but a torch for Typhaon’s bower, groom of the chamber of Hera the bride of your spear, whom he eyes with wrath, jealous of your bed: here you have Earthshaker with him, torn from the sea for a new place instead of the deep as waiter at your table, no trident in his hand but a cup for you if you are thirsty! Here you have Ares for a menial, Apollo is your lackey! Send round Maia’s son, King’s Messenger, to announce to the Titans your triumph and your glory in the skies. But leave your smith Hephaistos to his regular work in Lemnos, and he can make a necklace to adorn your newly wedded bride, a real work of art, in dazzling colours, or a fine pair of brilliant shoes for your wife’s feet to delight her, or he can build another Olympian throne of shining gold, that your golden-throned Hera may laugh because she has a better throne than yours! And when you have the underground Cyclopes domiciled in Olympos, make anew spark for an improved thunderbolt. As for Eros, who bewitched your mind by delusive hopes of victory, chain him with golden Aphrodite in chains of gold, and clamp with chains of bronze Ares the governor of iron!

  605 ἀστεροπαὶ φεύγουσι καὶ οὐ μίμνουσιν Ἐνυώ:

  πῶς στεροπῆς ὀλίγης οὐκ ἔκφυγες ἀπτόλεμον πῦρ;

  ἢ πόθεν οὔασι σοῖσιν ἀμετρήτοισιν ἀκούων

  βρονταίην ἐλάχειαν ἐδείδιες ὄμβριον ἠχώ;

  τίς σε τόσον ποίησεν ἀνάλκιδα; πῇ σέθεν αἰχμαί;

  610 πῇ κεφαλαὶ σκυλάκων; πῇ χάσματα κεῖνα λεόντων

  καὶ χθόνιον μύκημα βαρυφθόγγων σέο λαιμῶν;

  πῇ δε δρακοντείης δολιχόσκιος ἰὸς ἐθείρης;

  οὐκέτι συρίζεις ὀφιώδεϊ κυκλάδι χαίτῃ;

  πῇ βοέων στομάτων μυκήματα; πῇ σέο χειρῶν

  615 ἠλιβάτου πρηῶνος ἀκοντιστῆρες ἀγοστοί;

  οὐκέτι μαστίζεις ἑλικώδεας ἄντυγας ἄστρων;

  οὐκέτι λευκαίνουσι συῶν προβλῆτες ἀκωκαὶ

  ἀφροκόμῳ ῥαθάμιγγι διάβροχον ἀνθερεῶνα;

  πῇ μοι φρικτὰ γένεια σεσηρότα λυσσάδος ἄρκτου;

  [605] “The lightnings try to escape, and will not abide Enyo! How as it you could not escape a harmless little flash of lightning? How was it with all those innumerable ears you were afraid to hear a little rainy thud of thunder? Who made you so big a coward? Where are your weapons? Where are your puppyheads? Where are those gaping lions, where is the heavy bellowing of your throats like rumbling earthquake? Where is the far-flung poison of your snaky mane? Do not you hiss any more with that coronet of serpentine bristles? Where are the bellowings of your bull-mouths? Where are your hands and their volleys of precipitous crags? Do you flog no longer the mazy circles of the stars? Do the jutting tusk of your boars no longer whiten their chins, wet with a frill of foamy drippings? Come now, where are the bristling grinning jaws of the mad bear?

  620 εἶξον ἐπουρανίοισι, πεδοτρεφές: ὑμετέρων γὰρ

  χειρὶ μιῇ νίκησα διηκοσίων στίχα χειρῶν.

  ἀλλὰ βαθυκρήμνοισι περισφίγγουσα κολώναις

  Σικελίη τρικάρηνος ὅλον Τυφῶνα δεχέσθω

  οἰκτρὰ κονιομένοις ἑκατὸν κομόωντα καρήνοις.

  625 ἔμπης, εἰ νόον ἔσχες ὑπέρβιον, εἰ δὲ καὶ αὐτῷ

  ἐλπίσιν ἀπρήκτοισιν ἐπεσκίρτησας Ὀλύμπῳ,

  τεύξω σοι, πανάποτμε, κενήριον, ὑστάτιον δὲ

  σὸν κενεὸν παρὰ τύμβον, ἀτάσθαλε, τοῦτο χαράξω:

  ‘Γηγενέος τόδε σῆμα Τυφωέος, ὅν ποτε πέτροις

  630 αἰθέρα μαστίζοντα κατέφλεγεν αἰθέριον πῦρ.’’

  [620] “Son of Earth, give place to the sons of heaven! For I with one hand have vanquished your hands, two hundred strong. Let three-headland Sicily receive Typhon whole and entire, let her crush him all about under her steep and lofty hills, with the hair of his hundred heads miserably bedabbled in dust. Nevertheless, if you did have an over-violent mind, if you did assault Olympos itself in your impracticable ambitions, I will build you a cenotaph, presumptuous wretch, and I will engrave on your empty tomb, this last message: ‘This is the barrow of Typhoeus son of Earth, who once lashed the sky with stones, and the fire of heaven burnt him up.’”

  ἔννεπε κερτομέων νέκυν ἔμπνοον, υἱὸν Ἀρούρης.

  καὶ Διὶ παμμεδέοντι χέων ἐπινίκιον ἠχὼ

  λαϊνέῃ σάλπιγγι Κίλιξ μυκήσατο Ταῦρος,

  ὑδρηλοῖς δὲ πόδεσσιν ἕλιξ ὠρχήσατο Κύδνος

  635 Ζηνὸς ἀνευάζων διερῷ βρυχήματι νίκην,

  μεσσοφανὴς προχέων ναέτην ῥόον ἥλικι Ταρσῷ.

  γαῖα δὲ πετρήεντα διαρρήξασα χιτῶνα

  ἄχνυτο κεκλιμένη, καὶ πενθάδος ἀντὶ μαχαίρης

  κοπτομένην ἀνέμοις ἀπεκείρατο δενδράδα χαίτην,

  640 βόστρυχον ὑλήεντος ἀποτμήξασα καρήνου

  φυλλοχόῳ ἅτε μηνί, χαραδραίας δὲ παρειὰς

  δρύψατο, καὶ κελαδεινὰ δι᾽ εὐύδρων κενεώνων

  ἔρρεε μυρομένης ποταμήια δάκρυα Γαίης.

  ἐκ δὲ Τυφαονίων μελέων στροφάλιγγες ἀέλλης

  645 κύματα μαστίζουσιν, ἐπεσσύμεναι δὲ �
�αλύψαι

  ὁλκάδας ἀκλύστοιο καθιππεύουσι γαλήνης,

  οὐ μούνοις ῥοθίοισιν ἐπήλυδες: ἀλλ᾽ ἐνὶ γαίῃ

  πολλάκις αἰθύσσουσα θυελλήεσσα κονίη

  ὄρθιον ἡβώοντα κατέκλυσε καρπὸν ἀλωῆς.

  [631] Thus he mocked the half-living corpse of the son of Earth. Then Cilician Tauros brayed a victorious noise on his stony trumpet for Zeus Almighty, while Cydnos danced zigzag on his watery feet, crying Euoi! in rolling roar for the victory of Zeus, Cydnos visible in the midst, as he poured the flood upon Tarsos which had been there ever since he had been there himself. But Earth tore her rocky tunic and lay there grieving; instead of the shears of mourning, she let the winds beat her breast and shear off a coppice for a curl; so she cut the tresses from her forest-covered head as in the month of leaf-shedding, she tore gullies in her cheeks; Earth wailed, as her river-tears rolled echoing through the swollen torrents of the hills. The gales eddying from Typhaon’s limbs lash the waves, hurrying to engulf the ships and riding down the sheltered calm. Not only the surges they invade; but often over the land sweeps a storm of dust, and overwhelms the crops growing firm and upright upon the fields.

  650 καὶ ταμίη κόσμοιο, παλιγγενέος Φύσις ὕλης,

  ῥηγνυμένης κενεῶνα κεχηνότα πῆξεν ἀρούρης,

  νησαίους δὲ τένοντας ἀποτμηγέντας ἐναύλων

  ἁρμονίης ἀλύτοιο πάλιν σφρηγίσσατο δεσμῷ.

  οὐκέτι δὲ κλόνος ἦεν ἐν ἄστρασιν: ἠέλιος γὰρ

  655 χαιτήεντα Λέοντα παρὰ σταχυώδεϊ Κούρῃ

  Ζῳδιακῆς ἔστησε παραΐξαντα κελεύθου:

  οὐρανίου δὲ Λέοντος ἐπισκαίροντα προσώπῳ

  καρκίνον ἀντικέλευθον ἀθαλπέος Αἰγοκερῆος

  ἂψ ἀνασειράζουσα διεστήριξε Σελήνη.

  [650] Then Nature, who governs the universe and recreates its substance, closed up the gaping rents in earth’s broken surface, and sealed once more with the bond of indivisible joinery those island cliffs which had been rent from their beds. No longer was there turmoil among the stars. For Helios replaced the maned Lion, who had moved out of the path of the Zodiac, beside the Maiden who holds the corn-ear; Selene took the crab, now crawling over the forehead of the heavenly Lion, and drew him back opposite cold Capricorn, and fixt him there.

  660 οὐ μὲν ἀοιδοπόλοιο λελασμένος ἔπλετο Κάδμου

  Ζεὺς Κρονίδης, καλέσας δὲ τόσην ἐφθέγξατο φωνὴν

  ἠερίης σκιοειδὲς ἀποσκεδάσας νέφος ὄρφνης:

  ‘Κάδμε, τεῇ σύριγγι πύλας ἔστεψας Ὀλύμπου:

  σὸν γάμον οὐρανίῃ καὶ ἐγὼ Φόρμιγγι γεραίρω:

  665 γαμβρὸν ἐγὼ τελέσω σε καὶ Ἄρεϊ καὶ Κυθερείῃ,

  καὶ χθονίου δείπνοιο θεοὺς ἔχε δαιτυμονῆας.

  ἵξομαι εἰς σέο δῶμα: τί φίλτερον ἄλλο νοήσεις

  ἢ μακάρων βασιλῆα τεῆς ψαύοντα τραπέζης;

  εἰ δὲ τύχης ἐθέλεις ἑτερότροπα κύματα φεύγειν

  670 πορθμεύων βιότοιο γαληναίοιο πορείην,

  Ἄρεα μὲν Διρκαῖον ἀεὶ πεφύλαξο χαλέψαι,

  Ἄρεα νόσφι λόχου κεχολωμένον: ἐννύχιος δὲ

  οὐρανίοιο Δράκοντος ἐναντίον ὄμμα τιτήνας

  ῥέξον ὑπὲρ βωμοῖο λαβὼν εὔοδμον ὀφίτην,

  675 κικλήσκων Ὀφιοῦχον Ὀλύμπιον, ἐν πυρὶ καίων

  Ἰλλυρικῆς ἐλάφοιο πολυγλώχινα κεραίην,

  ὄφρα φύγῃς, ὅσα πικρὰ τεῷ πεπρωμένα πότμῳ

  Μοιριδίης ἔκλωσεν ἕλιξ ἄτρακτος ἀνάγκης,

  [660] But Zeus Cronides did not forget Cadmos the mastersinger. He dispersed the cloud of darkness which overshadowed him, and calling him, spoke in this fashion: “Cadmos, you have crowned the gates of Olympos with your pipes! Then I will myself celebrate your bridal with heaven’s own Harp. I will make you goodson to Ares and Cythereia; gods shall be guests at your wedding-feast on the earth! I will visit your house: what more could you want, than to see the King of the Blessed touching your table? And if you wish to cross life’s ferry on a calm sea, escaping the uncertain currents of Chance, be careful always not to offend Ares Dircaian, Ares angry when deprived of his brood. At dead of night fix your gaze on the heavenly Serpent, and do sacrifice on the altar holding in your hand a piece of fragrant serpentine; and calling upon the Olympian Serpent-holder, burn in the fire a horn of the Illyrian deer with many tines: that so you may escape all the bitter things which the wreathed spindle of apportioned Necessity has spun for your fate, - if the threads of the Portioners every obey!

  εἰ λίνα Μοιράων ἐπιπείθεται. ἀλλὰ τοκῆος

  680 μνῆστιν ἔα κοτέοντος Ἀγήνορος, ἀσταθέων δὲ

  ἀμφὶ κασιγνήτων μὴ δείδιθι: κεκριμένοι γὰρ

  πάντες ἔτι ζώουσιν, ἐπεὶ Νοτίην χθόνα Κηφεὺς

  νάσσατο Κηφήνων ἐπιήρανος Αἰθιοπήων,

  καὶ Θάσος εἰς Θάσον ἦλθεν, ἀερσιλόφοιο δὲ Ταύρου

  685 δύσνιφον ἀμφὶ τένοντα Κίλιξ Κιλίκεσσιν ἀνάσσει,

  Θρηικίην δ᾽ ἐπὶ πέζαν ἀπόσσυτος ἵκετο Φινεύς:

  τὸν μέν ἐγὼ κομόωντα βαθυπλούτοισι μετάλλοις

  γαμβρὸν ἐς Ὠρείθνιαν ἄγω καὶ Θρῇκα Βορῆα,

  νυμφίον ὀμφήεντα φιλοστεφάνου Κλεοπάτρης.

  690 καὶ σὺ κασιγνήτων ἰσοελκέι νήματι Μοίρης

  Καδμείων βασίλευε καὶ οὔνομα λεῖπε πολίταις:

  πλαγκτοσύνης δ᾽ ἀπόειπε παλίμπορα κύκλα κελεύθου,

  καὶ βοὸς ἄστατον ἴχνος ἀναίνεο: Κυπριδίῳ γὰρ

  σύγγονον ὑμετέρην ζυγίῳ νυμφεύσατο θεσμῷ

  695 Ἀστερίων Δικταῖος ἄναξ Κορυβαντίδος Ἴδης.

  [679] “Let pass the memory of your angry father Agenor, fear not for your wandering brothers; for they all live, though far apart. Cepheus journeyed to the regions of the south, and he has found favour with the Cephenes of Ethiopia; Thasos went to Thasos, and Cilix is king over the Cilicians round about the snowy mount of high-peaked Tauros; Pineus came with all speed to the Thracian land. As for him, I will make him proud with his deep mines of riches, and lead him as goodson to Oreithyia and Thracian Boreas, as prophetic bridegroom of garlanded Cleopatra. For you, the Portioner’s thread weighs equal with your brothers; be king of the Cadmeians, and leave your name to your people. Give up the back-wending circuits of your wandering way, and relinquish the bull’s restless track; for your sister has been wedded by the law of love to Asterion of Dicte, king of Corybantian Ida.

  καὶ τὰ μὲν αὐτὸς ἐγὼ μαντεύσομαι, ἄλλα δὲ Φοίβῳ

  καλλείψω: σὺ δέ, Κάδμε, μεσόμφαλον ἄξονα βαίνων

&
nbsp; Δελφίδος αὐδήεντα μετέρχεο τέμπεα Πυθοῦς.’

  [696] “So much I will myself foretell for you, the rest I will leave to Phoibos. And now, Cadmos, do you make your way to the midnipple of the earth, and visit the speaking vales of Pytho.”

  ὣς εἰπὼν ἀπέπεμπεν Ἀγηνορίδην μετανάστην

  700 Ζεὺς Κρονίδης: καὶ κραιπνὸς ἐς αἰθερίων ἴτυν ἄστρων

  χρύσεον ἔτραπε δίφρον, ἐπεμβεβαυῖα δὲ Νίκη

  ἤλασεν οὐρανίῃ πατρώιον ἵππον ἱμάσθλῃ.

  καὶ θεὸς εἰς πόλον ἦλθε τὸ δεύτερον: ἐρχομένῳ δὲ

  οὐρανίας πετάσαντο πύλας ὑψαύχενες Ὧραι,

  705 αἰθέρα δ᾽ ἐστέψαντο: παλιννόστῳ δ᾽ ἐνὶ μορφῇ

  σὺν Διὶ νικήσαντι θεοὶ νόστησαν Ὀλύμπῳ,

  καὶ πτερόεν μίμημα μετηλλάξαντο προσώπου.

  ἁβροχίτων δ᾽ ἀσίδηρος ἐς οὐρανὸν ἦλθεν Ἀθήνη

  Ἄρεα Κῶμον ἔχουσα, Μέλος δέ οἱ ἔπλετο Νίκη:

  710 καὶ Θέμις ὅπλα Γίγαντος ὀλωλότος ἄφρονι Γαίῃ

  εἰς φόβον ἐσσομένων ἐπεδείκνυε, μητρὶ Γιγάντων,

  ὑψιπαγῆ κρεμάσασα παρὰ προθύροισιν Ὀλύμπου.

  [699] With these words, Zeus Cronides dismissed Agenor’s son, and swiftly turned his golden chariot toward the round of the ethereal stars, while Victory by his side drove her father’s team with the heavenly whip. So the god came once more to the sky; and to receive him the stately Seasons threw open the heavenly gates, and crowned the heavens. With Zeus victorious, the other gods came home to Olympos, in their own form come again, for they put off the winged shapes which they had taken on. Athena came into heaven unarmed, in dainty robes with Ares turned Comus, and Victory for Song; and Themis displayed to dumbfounded Earth, mother of the giants, the spoils of the giant destroyed, an awful warning for the future, and hung them up high in the vestibule of Olympos.