Works of Nonnus

by Nonnus

  Ἑρμείαν τέκε Μαῖα, καὶ οὐκ ἐλόχευσεν ἀκοίτης:

  ἀμφαδίην δ᾽ ἐμὸν υἷα πατὴρ τέκεν. ἆ μέγα θαῦμα,

  δέρκεο σῆς Διόνυσον ἐν ἀγκαλίδεσσι τεκούσης

  220 πήχεϊ παιδοκόμῳ περικείμενον: ἀενάου δὲ

  ἡ ταμίη κόσμοιο, θεῶν πρωτόσπορος ἀρχή,

  παμμήτωρ, Βρομίου τροφὸς ἔπλετο: νηπιάχῳ γὰρ

  Βάκχῳ μαζὸν ὄρεξε, τὸν ἔσπασεν ὑψιμέδων Ζεύς.

  τίς Κρονίδης ὤδινε, τίς ἔτρεφεν Ἄρεα Ῥείη

  225 παῖδα τεόν; Κυβέλη δὲ φατιζομένη σέο μήτηρ

  Ζῆνα τέκεν καὶ Βάκχον ἀνέτρεφεν εἰν ἑνὶ κόλπῳ:

  ἀμφοτέρους ἤειρε καὶ υἱέα καὶ γενετῆρα.

  οὐδὲ τόκῳ Σεμέλης ἀπάτωρ Ἥφαιστος ἐρίζοι

  ἄσπορος ἐκ γενετῆρος, ὃν αὐτόγονος τέκεν Ἥρη

  230 λεπταλέων σκάζοντα ποδῶν ἑτεραλκέι ταρσῷ,

  μητρῴην ἀτέλεστον ὑποκλέπτοντα λοχείην.

  οὐ Σεμέλῃ πέλε Μαῖα πανείκελος, ἧς πάις Ἑρμῆς

  ἰσοφανὴς δολόεις, κεκορυθμένος οἷά περ Ἄρης,

  Ἥρην ἠπερόπευσεν, ἕως γλάγος ἔσπασε μαζῶν.

  235 εἴξατέ μοι: Σεμέλη γὰρ ἑὸν πόσιν ἔλλαχε μούνη

  τὴν αὐτὴν ἀρόωντα καὶ ὠδίνοντα γενέθλην.

  ὀλβίστη Σεμέλη χάριν υἱέος: ἡμέτερος γὰρ

  νόσφι δόλου Διόνυσος ἐλεύσεται εἰς χορὸν ἄστρων

  αἰθέρα ναιετάων πατρώιον, ὅττι θεαίνης

  240 τοσσατίης ὑπέδεκτο θεοτρεφέος γάλα θηλῆς:

  ἵξεται αὐτοκέλευστος ἐς οὐρανόν, οὐδὲ χατίζει

  Ἡραίοιο γάλακτος ἀρείονα μαζὸν ἀμέλξας.’

  [206] And Semele in Olympos, with a breath of the thunderbolts still about her, lifted a proud neck and cried with haughty voice – “Hera, you are ruined! Semele’s son has beaten you! Zeus brought forth my son, he was the mother in my place! The father begot, the father brought forth his begotten. He brought forth a child from a makeshift womb of his own, and forced nature to change. Bacchos was stronger than Enyalios; your Ares he only begot, and never childed with his thigh! Thebes ahs eclipsed the glory of Ortygia! For Leto the divine was chased about, and brought forth Apollo on the sly; Leto brought forth Phoibos, Cronion had no labour for him; Maia brought forth Hermes, her husband did not deliver him; but my son was brought forth openly by his father. Here’s a great miracle! See Dionysos in the arms of your own mother, he lies on that cherishing arm! The Dispenser of the eternal universe, the first sown Beginning of the gods, the Allmother, became a nurse for Bromios; she offered to infant Bacchos the breast which Zeus High and Mighty has sucked! What Cronides was ever in labour, what Rheia was ever nurse for your boy? But this Cybele who is called your mother brought forth Zeus and suckled Bacchos in the same lap! She dandled them both, the son and the father. No fatherless Hephaistos could rival Semele’s child, none unbegotten of a father whom Hera brought forth by her own begettomg – and now he limps about on an illmatched pair of feeble legs to hid his mother’s bungling skill in childbirth! Maia was not quite like Semele; for her son, crafty, armed himself like Ares, and looking like him, deluded Hera until he sucked the milk of her breast. Give place to me all! for Semele alone had a husband, who got and groaned for the same child. Semele is happiest, because of her son: for my Dionysos will come without scheming into the company of the stars; he will dwell in his father’s heaven, because he drew milk from the godnursing teat of that mighty goddess. He will come selfsummoned into the heavens; he needs not Hera’s milk, for he has milked a nobler breast.”

  εἶπεν ἀγαλλομένη καὶ ἐν αἰθέρι: χωομένη δὲ

  Ζηνὸς ἀνεπτοίησε δάμαρ μετανάστιον Ἰνώ,

  245 ἀπροϊδὴς Ἀθάμαντος ἐπιβρίσασα μελάθρῳ

  εἰσέτι κουρίζοντι χολωομένη Διονύσῳ.

  [243] She spoke exulting even in the sky; but the angry consort of Zeus fell heavily in surprise upon the house of Athamas and scared Ino into flight. She still resented the childhood of Dionysos.

  ἐκ θαλάμου δὲ φυγοῦσα διέδραμε δύσγαμος Ἰνώ,

  τρηχαλέας ἀπέδιλος ἐπισκαίρουσα κολώνας,

  ἴχνος ἀκηρύκτοιο μετεσσυμένη Διονύσου:

  250 φοιταλέη δὲ βέβηκε δι᾽ οὔρεος οὔρεα νύμφη,

  ἄχρι χαραδρήεσσαν ἐδύσατο Δελφίδα Πυθώ:

  καὶ μόγις ἴχνος ἔκαμψε δρακοντοβότῳ παρὰ λόχμῃ

  ἄσχετα παιφάσσουσα: κατὰ στέρνοιο δὲ γυμνοῦ

  πενθαλέον κήρυκα διαρρήξασα χιτῶνα

  255 αἰνομανὴς πεφόρητο: νοοπλάγκτοιο δὲ νύμφης

  οἰμωγὴν ἀίων ἑτερόθροον ἔτρεμε ποιμήν.

  πολλάκι θεσπεσίῃ τριποδηίδι σύμπλοκον ἕδρῃ

  αὐχμηραῖς τριέλικτον ὄφιν σπειρηδὸν ἐθείραις

  ἥρμοσε, λεπταλέῳ δὲ περισφίγξασα καρήνῳ

  260 μηκεδανὴν μίτρωσε δρακοντείῳ τρίχα δεσμῷ:

  παρθενικὰς δ᾽ ἐδίωκε θεωρίδας. οὐ τότε λοιβή,

  οὐδὲ θυηπολίη μεταδήμιος, οὐ παρὰ νηῷ

  Δελφὸς ἀνὴρ ἐχόρευε: τανυπλέκτοιο δὲ κισσοῦ

  γυιοβόροις ἑλίκεσσιν ἐμαστίζοντο γυναῖκες.

  265 θηρητὴρ δ᾽ ἀλέεινεν ἰδὼν ὀρεσίδρομον Ἰνώ,

  καλλείψας σταλίκων λίνεον δόλον: ὑψιλόφου δὲ

  αἰπόλος ἤλασεν αἶγας ὑπὸ πτύχα φωλάδα πέτρης

  καὶ βόας ἱδρώοντας ὑπὸ ζυγόδεσμον ἐλαύνων

  ἅλμασιν Ἰνῴοισι γέρων ἔφριξεν ἀροτρεύς.

  270 καὶ χθονίης σφίγξασα βοῆς ἀλλόθροον ἠχὼ

  Πυθιὰς ὀμφήεσσα δι᾽ οὔρεος ἔτρεχε κούρη,

  ἠθάδα σεισαμένη κεφαλῇ Πανοπηίδα δάφνην:

  δυσαμένη δὲ κάρηνα βαθυκνήμιδος ἐρίπνης

  Δελφικὸν ἄντρον ἔναιε φόβῳ λυσσώδεος Ἰνοῦς.

  [247] Ino, unhappy wife, escaped from her chamber and fled, rushing unshod over the rough mountains and searching for a trace of Dionysos, but without tidings. The nymph wandered passing from hill to hill, until she entered the ravine of Delphian Pytho. At last after intolerable wanderings she turned her step into the dragonbreeding copse. She tore the shift from her naked breast in token of mourning, and roamed madly about: the shepherd trembled to hear her distracted lamentation in a language he did not know. Often she seized the serpent which coiled thrice around the divine tripod-seat, and wreathed it in spirals on her squalid hair, fastening the long tresses about the delicate head with a
snaky ribbon. She drove away the maidens of the temple service: nor more libations, nor more public worship, no man of Delphoi danced near the temple – the women were scourged with limbscoring tangles of longplaited ivy. The huntsmen who saw Ino running on the hills left the traps of string on their stakes and fled. The goatherd drove his goats under cover of a hole in the towering rocks; the old plowman as he drove the sweating oxen under the yoke shivered at Ino’s leaps. The Pythian prophetess herself choked down the foreign sounds of the underworld voice and ran into the mountains, with her customary Panopeian laurel shaking upon her head: she plunged between the deepkneed peaks of the ravine, and took refuge in the Delphic cavern, in her fear of maddened Ino.

  275 ἀλλὰ διεσσυμένη πολυκαμπέος ἔνδιον ὕλης

  οὐ λάθεν Ἀπόλλωνα πανόψιον: ἄγχι δὲ λόχμης

  οἰκτείρων ταχὺς ἦλθε, καὶ εἰς βροτὸν εἶδος ἀμείψας

  νύμφης ἐγγὺς ἵκανε, καὶ ἀκρότατον δέμας Ἰνοῦς

  φειδομέναις παλάμῃσι σοφῆς ἐπλέξατο Δάφνης,

  280 καὶ οἱ νήδυμον ὕπνον ἐπήγαγεν: ἀμβροσίῃ δὲ

  ὑπναλέης ἔχρισεν ὅλον χρόα πενθάδος Ἰνοῦς

  λυσιπόνῳ ῥαθάμιγγι μεμηνότα γυῖα διαίνων.

  καὶ χρόνον αὐτόθι μίμνεν ἔσω Παρνησίδος ὕλης

  τέτρατον εἰς λυκάβαντα, καὶ ὀμφαίῃ παρὰ πέτρῃ

  285 εἰσέτι νηπιάχοιο χοροὺς ἱδρύσατο Βάκχου

  Φοίβου μαντοσύνῃσι: σὺν ἀγρύπνοισι δὲ πεύκαις

  Κωρυκίδες θυόεντα μετέστιχον ὄργια Βάκχαι,

  καὶ ζαθέαις παλάμῃσιν ἀλεξητήρια λύσσης

  φάρμακα συλλέξαντο καὶ ἰήσαντο γυναῖκα.

  [275] But Apollo Allseeing did not miss the woman, as she went through the twinings and twistings of the open forest where she sojourned. He pitied her, and came quickly near the grove. Taking the shape of a man he approached Ino, and with gentle hands wreathed her head with leaves of clever laurel, and brought sleep upon her. Then he anointed with ambrosia the whole body of mourning Ino in her sleep, bathing her maddened limbs in the grief-assuaging drops. Long she remained there in the Parnassian wood, until the fourth lichtgang. Then she founded dances for Bacchos yet a young boy, hard by the rock of prophecy, by the oracle of Phoibos; with unsleeping torches the Corycian Bacchants followed their fragrant rites, and gathered healing drugs with their divine hands, and healed the woman of her madness.

  290 Κεκλομένου δ᾽ Ἀθάμαντος ὀπάονες ἦσαν ἀλῆται

  πάντοθι μαστεύοντες: ὀριπλανέες δὲ καὶ αὐταὶ

  δμωίδες ἐστιχόωντο πολυστρέπτοισι πορείαις

  διζόμεναι περίφοιτον ἀπευθέος ἴχνος ἀνάσσης

  πλαζομένης ἀκίχητα: φιλοθρήνων δὲ γυναικῶν

  295 στυγνὸς ἐρευθιόωσαν ὄνυξ ἤμυσσε παρειήν,

  καὶ ῥοδέοις ἐκόρυσσαν ἑκούσια δάκτυλα μαζοῖς:

  καὶ πολὺν οἰμωγῇσι δι᾽ ἄστεος ἦχον ἰάλλων

  πενθαλέης ὀλόλυξε βεβυσμένος οἶκος ἀνίης:

  καὶ πλέον αἰολόμητις ἐδέχνυτο Μύστις ἀνάγκην,

  300 εἶχε δὲ διπλόον ἄλγος ἀλωομένης ἔτι δειλῆς

  Ἰνοῦς τλησιπόνοιο καὶ ἁρπαμένου Διονύσου.

  [290] Meanwhile at the call of Athamas the servants had been scattered, hunting everywhere for Ino. The women wandered over the hills like her, passing by many a winding path in search of any footstep of their missing lady, who moved leaving neither trace nor tidings. The women wept and wailed, cruel nails tore the reddened cheeks, willing fingers attacked the rosy breasts. The house plunged in mourning and sorrow cried aloud, and sent the loud sound of lamentation through the city. Most of all the inventive mind of Mystis felt the hard oppression, for she had a double grief, when unhappy Ino was still lost with all her troubles to bear, and Dionysos was stolen away.

  οὐ μὲν ἄναξ Ἀθάμας κινυρὴν ὠδύρετο νύμφην,

  ἀλλὰ λιπὼν ἄμνηστον ἀκηρύκτου πόθον Ἰνοῦς

  δισσοτόκου Νεφέλης προτέρης μετὰ δέμνια νύμφης

  305 ἁβρὰ βαθυζώνοιο μετέστιχε λέκτρα Θεμιστοῦς,

  καὶ τρίτον εἰς ὑμέναιον ἄγων Ὑψηίδα κούρην

  Ἰνοῦς ῥῖψεν ἔρωτα: καὶ ὡς τροφὸς ἁβρὸν ἀθύρων,

  ὑψιπόρῳ στροφάλιγγι μετάρσιον ἠέρι πέμπων,

  κούφισε παππάζοντα παρηγορέων Μελικέρτην:

  310 καί οἱ δακρυχέοντι γαλακτοφόρου περὶ θηλῆς

  ἄρσενα μαζὸν ὄρεξε, πόθον δ᾽ ἀνέκοψε τεκούσης.

  [302] However, Athamas did not mourn his afflicted bride. He forgot his fickle passion for untraced Ino, and after the bed of his first wife Nephele had given him two children, he sought the luxurious couch of deepbosomed Themisto, and took as a third wife the daughter of Hypseus – and thus threw off Ino’s love. Once as he played prettily nurse-like to comfort Melicertes calling for papa, lifting and throwing him up and up in the air with high somersaults, when the boy cried for the milky teat, he offered his man’s breast and made him forget his mother.

  ἐκ λεχέων δ᾽ Ἀθάμαντος ἀνηέξησε Θεμιστὼ

  υἱέας εὐθώρηκας, ἀλεξητῆρας Ἐνυοῦς,

  Σχοινέα καὶ Λεύκωνα, νέην εὐήνορα φύτλην,

  315 πρωτοτόκοις ὠδῖσιν: ἐπ᾽ ἀμφοτέροισι δὲ μήτηρ

  ξυνῆς δισσὰ γένεθλα μιῆς βλάστημα λοχείης

  γείνατο Πορφυρέωνα καὶ ἔτρεφε πίονι μαζῷ

  Πτοῖον, ἀλεξικάκοιο θάλος παιδήιον ἥβης,

  ἄμφω τηλυγέτους καὶ ὁμήλικας, οὕς ποτε μήτηρ

  320 μητρυιῆς ἅτε παῖδας ἀπηλοίησε Θεμιστώ,

  δίπτυχον ἀγλαόπαιδος ὀιομένη γένος Ἰνοῦς.

  [312] From the bed of Athamas, Themisto bred two warrior sons, a sure defence against battle, Schoineus and Leucon, a fine new manly breed, the fruit of her first births. After these two, the mother bore twin offspring of one common birth, and nursed at her rich breast Porphyrion and Ptoios, boyish blossoms of foe-defying youth both beloved and of one gage: these boys Themisto herself destroyed in later days, like stepmother’s children, believing them to be the twin offspring of Ino the glorious mother.

  BOOK 10

  καὶ δεκάτῳ μανίην Ἀθαμαντίδα καὶ δρόμον Ἰνοῦς,

  πῶς φύγεν εἰς ἁλὸς οἶδμα σὺν ἀρτιτόκῳ Μελικέρτῃ.

  ὣς ἡ μὲν φονίη παιδοκτόνος ἔπλετο μήτηρ

  μαινομένη: τεκέων δὲ πατὴρ ὑπὸ μάρτυρι ποινῇ,

  ὅττι γονῆς ὀλέτειραν ὁμέστιον εἶχε Θεμιστώ,

  οἰστρηθεὶς Ἀθάμας μανιώδεϊ Πανὸς ἱμάσθλῃ

  5 ποίμνης
εἰς μέσον ἦλθε, καὶ ὡς θεράποντας ἱμάσσων

  εἰροπόκων ἐδίωκεν ἀναίτια πώεα μήλων:

  καὶ μίαν ἠέρταζεν, ἑὴν ἅτε σύζυγα νύμφην,

  σὺν διδύμοις βρεφέεσσι νεογλαγέων ἐπὶ μαζῶν

  αἶγα λαβών: λασίους δὲ πόδας σφηκώσατο δεσμῷ

  10 διχθαδίῳ: λύσας δὲ παρ᾽ ἰξύι κυκλάδα μίτρην

  σφιγγομένης μάστιζε δέμας ψευδήμονος Ινοῦς,

  μὴ νοέων νόθον εἶδος. ἀεὶ δέ οἱ ἔνδον ἀκουῆς

  Πανιάδος Κρονίης ἐπεβόμβεε δοῦπος ἱμάσθλης:

  πολλάκι δ᾽ ἀστήρικτος ἑῶν ἀνεπάλλετο θώκων

  15 οὔασι ταρβαλέοισι δεδεγμένος ἄσθμα δρακόντων.

  πυκνὰ δὲ τόξα τίταινε, βέλος δ᾽ ἐπὶ κυκλάδι νευρῇ

  εἰς κενεὸν σκοπὸν εἷλκεν ἀνούτατον ἠέρα βάλλων.

  Ταρταρίης δ᾽ ὀφιῶδες ἰδὼν ἴνδαλμα θεαίνης

  πάλλετο δειμαίνων ἑτερόχροα φάσματα μορφῆς,

  20 ἀφρὸν ἀκοντίζων χιονώδεα, μάρτυρα λύσσης,

  ὀφθαλμοὺς μεθύοντας ἀπειλητῆρας ἑλίσσων.

  καί οἱ ὀπιπεύοντι πολυπλανέεσσιν ἐρωαῖς

  ὄμματα φοινίσσοντο: διὰ κροτάφοιο δὲ λεπταὶ

  ἀσταθέος μήνιγγες ἐδινεύοντο καρήνου.

  BOOK X

  In the tenth also, you will see the madness of Athamas and Ino’s flight, how she fled into the swell of the sea with newborn Melicertes.

  So the murderous mother killed her sons in madness. Athamas their father, under the punishment which attested that he had beside his hearth Themisto the destroyer of her own offspring, was tormented by the maddening lash of Pan; he rushed among his flocks, and harried the innocent troops of woolly bleaters while he believed himself to be flogging his servants. One he lifted, thinking her to be his wedded wife – it was a nannygoat he found, with a pair of newborn kids at her milky udder. He tied her hairy legs tight with two ropes; and undoing the belt that ran round his loins, he flogged the body of the false Ino there held fast, without noticing the changeling form, for always in his ear sounded the thuds of the lash of Cronian Pan. Often he leapt from his seat restless, hearing with terrified ears the hiss of serpents. Many a time he bent his bow, and setting an arrow to the drawn string, he drew at an imaginary mark and struck the unwounded air. He would see the serpentine image of the goddess of Tartaros, and leap up scared at the many-coloured vision of the spectre, spitting snowy foam to witness his frenzy, rolling eyes drunken and full of threats. His eyes grew bloodshot as he stared about under vagrant impulses; inside his wagging head the flimsy brains rolled about behind his brows.